Changing Seasons
by Squire of Gothos
Summary: A redo of NGE with subtle things different. Subtle things, like Ritsuko making a few 'changes' to Rei's medicine schedule. Better start running, Shinji
1. Days of Hell

Pre-read by FanficFan

* * *

Laughter. Joy. She came to herself, standing before a roaring bonfire, watching the sparks soar up and scatter like stars in the sky. Voices murmured around her, some in quiet conversations, others raised in merry exchanges. She concentrated, trying to remember where she was, what she had been doing. It was hard to recall specifics of the recent past, not to mention what would be considered a day ago, or a week or even a month. It all blurred together, one long happy smudge of existence stretching as far back as she could remember.

"Are you well?" The feminine melodic voice, quiet and airy like wind-chimes, drew her attention. Soft black curls haloing a pale oval face that shone with life. She was Leliel of the Ocean, and beside her stood Areal of the Eagle, his blazing red hair reflecting the light of the bonfire. The two of them had been her guardians, her mentors, for as long as she could remember.

"Yes," she answered, smiling wanly. It wasn't precisely a lie. Not that she could have consciously told one in this place, especially to these two. They were the closest thing she had to a family, though in a sense, everyone in this realm was her family.

She shook her head, allowing herself to be led away from the fire, nearer to a stand of trees. Well, less a stand of trees and more a forest, now that the fire was no longer so blinding. No longer protected by its warmth, she shivered at the chill fingers of the night's calm breeze. Comforting arms pulled her close, and she gratefully accepted the warmth of contact.

Away from the fire she could see the small settlement spread out on the edge of the woods. Clusters of tents marched their way across the landscape as if left by the mad pirouetting of a deranged dancer, but then there had been no central designer other than fate. Each small group lived where they willed, some close together, others out near the edge of the settlement, hidden from their nearest neighbors by trees and bushes.

"This day has been long coming." Areal's deep baritone was soothing, even if she didn't want that feeling. She looked up to Leliel's smooth face, finding a touch of sadness but no tears.

"You cannot choose someone from this village," Leliel spoke softly, answering an unvoiced question that had been asked often before.

"I am not the first to take this path." With all her heart she longed for her Ocean mother to contradict her, to lay out arguments against what she was doing. She herself was conflicted, at least she was on the surface. "Others have left the village before me."

She looked to hot-headed Areal, but he was still as a statue. Leliel's eyes glittered with wetness and she closed them. "And so far, none have returned," the woman breathed out.

Stricken to the heart, she turned, her stumbling footsteps carrying her deeper into the woods. Behind, she heard a short outcry of grief, then a deep baritone rumble of comfort.

She ran through the forest until she couldn't see anything more than gray shadows reaching for her blindly. Stray branches brushed against her face, bushes pulling at her, pushing her first one way then another. It felt as if she were going uphill, then climbing steeply. She stumbled to her knees, her breath coming in heaves as she fought to draw in precious air.

She looked down at her hands, which weren't dirty. She felt her face, the skin neither broken nor scratched. Most people would probably think her a fool for leaving this perfect place. Around her was darkness. Even the bright orange of the bonfire through the trees behind her had disappeared.

Not dark. Now that her eyes had adjusted she could see the path ahead bathed in a pale white light, as if the calm unblinking eye of the moon was somehow somehow peeking its way through the impenetrable ceiling of tree branches overhead. She looked up just to assure herself of that fact, and the darkness of tangled boughs blocked all sight of the night sky.

The pale glow was emanating from somewhere up ahead. She crept forward on her hands and knees, anticipation building within her. She had not felt such excitement for a long time. Wariness made her pause as the ground leveled out. With a sudden effort she pushed herself up over the lip of earth that held her up, suspended over a vast expanse that took her breath away.

The cliff face on which she lay was high above the clouds below. She had not known her village was settled on such a high mountain. A bright blue jewel sparkled below, a round hill of life nestled between giant mountains on both sides. She imagined she could see vast rivers of water, mountains jutting up from wide-open grassy plains. There would be towns, cities, and possibly, somewhere, someone waiting for her. Someone who was possibly looking up towards the cliff where she was sitting.

She stretched out a hand, spreading apart her fingers. The jewel of life fit between her fingers like a gemstone on a ring, just as distant. There had to be some way down, some hidden path.

Suddenly she was falling, though she didn't remember jumping or crawling forward. The roar of wind blanked out everything else, bringing an unaccountable sense of peace to replace the momentary fear.

_Remember,_ the wind whispered, as she fell. _If you can remember your way back, you'll always have a place with us._

_Oh, and Areal says not to bring back any weirdos._

She smiled. The clouds embraced her, and she slept.

* * *

Darkness. The remnants of a strange dream echoed through her mind, something about a fire, and a forest. She did not know what any of it meant, she only had fading images and the intense darkness.

_Open your eyes._

The words sounded strange at first, as if they were in a language different from her own. The sounds and syllables rearranged themselves, and she forgot her previous confusion. She opened her eyes.

"Good."

A man stood before her, a kind smile on his face. It reminded her of someone else, someone with red hair, and she reached up a trembling hand. It was stopped by an invisible barrier, and the man reached a hand towards hers, laying it flat against the barrier where her hand touched. She looked at her hand, felt the weakness in her body, and wondered.

A tall woman with dull yellow hair stepped into view, and she blinked questioningly at this newcomer. She was dressed in white and held something square in her hands.

"Amazing," she said. "I think she can understand what we're saying, even this young!"

The woman continued talking, mumbling to herself. The man left. She looked around, momentarily feeling the boundaries of her realm. Circular and invisible, but it bent the light, a slight distortion. She was resting in some sort of liquid, but she was able to breathe. This was not frightening to her, for some reason.

_Where I come from, I have always been protected from harm._

The thought came and went, from where she did not know. Her past was shaded in darkness, dim memory that had long since faded. The strange woman outside moved about, doing things she didn't understand, sometimes pausing to look at her.

Time passed, and strange thoughts came and went on their own. She was brought back to awareness by a change she felt from her head to her feet. Suddenly she was heavy, sinking to her knees. Coldness wrapped around her skin, making her shiver. She breathed out, and watched mesmerized as liquid streamed down. She opened her mouth and let the liquid splatter onto the ground and disappear through small holes in the floor.

Then she breathed in and icy air burrowed into her lungs making her cry out. Pain was something foreign to her, as alien as sorrow. She lay on the cold hard floor and wept until warm arms gathered her close.

Pain slowly subsided and she came to herself. She was lying on something soft and white, and when she breathed in it no longer felt as bad. She reached her hand up, looking at it. It felt cold in the air, but the air she was breathing was warm and moist. Something was over her face, giving her warm air to breathe. She let her hand fall and closed her eyes.

* * *

She blinked and sat up, bringing a hand to her face to assure herself of reality. The room was dark, but through the window the horizon was shot through with pink. Reaching over flipped a switch and the room lit up with flickering harsh white light that soon stabilized. Her room, her apartment.

It had been over ten years since memories of her past had intruded upon her sleep. Especially memories of her deep past, of her life in that village on the mountain. The vague memory was surreal enough for her to put down to some sort of bizarre hallucination, were it not for the primal need she felt to return, to go back to wherever it was she came from. If only she knew where that was. This was supposedly her birth place. Where else could she have come from? When would she have had time to live a life there, no matter how short?

Shrugging aside the questions and the bed-covers, she stepped away from the bed and into her morning routine.

Showering, dressing herself, cutting up fruit and eating it over reheated rice. She had long since grown used to the pains and dullness of everyday life. None of it mattered, except that it kept her functioning for the hours of time she put into her work at NERV, the top-secret governmental agency created to protect humanity from the threat of invasion.

Placing her empty dish with the others in the sink, she left the kitchen, pushed open the door to her apartment, and caught sight of one of the few bright points of the day.

"Ayanami!"

The black haired teenager pulling shut the door to the apartment three doors over from hers was Shinji Ikari. He jogged over, catching up to walk beside her. They walked down the stairs and out onto the sidewalk.

"Are you prepared for your harmonics test?" Rei asked.

"Yeah, I guess so." His youthful expression twisted as if he was tasting something he wasn't sure he liked or not. "I'm not sure I'll ever get used to that kind of thing."

"You will," Rei reassured him. Buildings rose in the distance as they walked over the curve of the sidewalk towards the nearest entry point down into NERV headquarters hidden below the sprawling city of Tokyo-3. Shinji glanced over.

"Don't you have an activation experiment today?"

"Yes."

The train ride down was punctuated by further sporadic conversation. Her activation test had already been delayed once due to compatibility issues, according to Doctor Akagi. Failure was not something she enjoyed, especially concerning the Commander, but she didn't know what else she could do.

Fully changed into their plug suits, both followed Ritsuko to the Eva cages. Lights snapped on as they walked, harshly illuminating each Eva in turn, first the lurid orange of the first unit's armor, and then the purple sheen of Unit-01. The purple coolant liquid that came up to both units' chests was eerily motionless.

"As soon as the activation experiment is complete, both of you will undergo your regularly scheduled harmonics test." Ritsuko gave Rei a cursory glance. "Are you ready?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Alright, come with me."

Following Ritsuko, she walked over to where a plug seat was waiting at the end of its crane, waiting to lift the pilot out over the lake of coolant to the waiting partially-ejected entry plug at the base of the Eva's neck. She looked back towards where Shinji stood as she sat down. He waved, and then was eclipsed by Ritsuko, who helped her fasten the seat's restraints over her midsection.

The agonizingly slow movement of the crawler transporting the Eva to the secure bunker room where activations were carried out was mind-numbing, even for Rei. Especially for her, since this was her life, and she appeared to be doing poorly. She had plenty of time to steady herself, however, and repeat the calming exercises she had been shown over and over. By the time her unit had been hooked to the wall securely into its restraints, her mind was as calm as the unmoving coolant lake had been.

At least it felt that way. Probably just out of her conscious vision there was a torrent of feelings bouncing around.

She further calmed herself as the plug lights strobed, flashing the multicolored shapes of the test patterns. She closed her eyes. The entry plug was the closest thing she had to the previous world of comfort she had come from. She remembered no details of that past life, be she knew it had been supremely comfortable and peaceful. It was to this peace she longed to return. This goal sharpened her concentration and eased her mind.

"Beginning contact..." Voices washed over her, the technicians going through their routines. Tension filled their voices, but now she was immune to it. Let them feel the tension, if they wanted to do so.

"First-stage contact established, beginning second-stage contact..." She felt a presence stir, and something began to simmer deep in her mind. She didn't quite understand. It wasn't uncomfortable, but something akin to an itch began to crawl its way up from the depths of her subconscious.

"Second-stage contact established, approaching absolute borderline at one point eight, one point five, one point two..." There was something in the Eva, looking at her. What was it? "-point eight, point seven, point six-"

The base shook on its foundations.

"Abort the test! Abort the test...!"

"Pattern Blue has been detected at close range! My God, it's already within the outer defense perimeter! Scramble all squadrons-"

She leaned back, hands still over her mouth, eyes wide. The tendrils of that alien presence had almost gotten her.

_It was myself._ She tried to control her breathing, her racing heartbeat. _All the parts I don't like, the parts I don't like looking at. But why?_

Her retrieval from the Eva took time, but she was jogging down the hall back towards the Eva cages in time to see Ritsuko leading a white-faced Shinji towards a waiting plug seat, undoubtedly bound for Unit-01. Ritsuko turned and strode across the deck towards a technician, conversing with him in hushed tones.

"Ikari, it's okay...!" He turned at her words, his eyes wide. "Just remain calm during the process. Remain calm..."

He nodded as Ritsuko ran over and bundled him into the plug seat, which sped away soon after. She waited, watching, as the Eva brooded. Several minutes passed, and then its eyes took on a dull glow. The technicians that happened to be in the area were too disciplined to break into open cheers, but more than one smiled, nodding respectfully. She let out the breath she had been holding, and turned to jog off towards the showers.

One quick shower later, she was standing on the control deck, her hair still damp.

"Just concentrate on walking, Shinji, you're doing just fine..." Ritsuko bent over a technician's shoulder. At this point, Misato burst through the door.

"I made it!" she bawled. Rits whipped around, a scowl on her face.

"Not in time," she snapped.

"Can I say it? Just once?" Misato begged.

"I'm warning you..."

"Launch-!" Ritskuko lunged for Misato's throat. "Just kidding!" The raven-haired major shrieked, dashing back out the door. Rei walked up to the microphone, watching the Angel's progress towards Shinji's Eva.

"Draw your prog knife, Ikari."

"Prog what?" Shinji's static-filled voice sounded confused.

"Press the button on your right butterfly control. The knife will come out of your-"

"-right shoulder pouldron!" Ritsuko shoved Rei to the side, nearly unseating Lieutenant Shigeru.

"Oh," Shinji commented. "So that's what this button does-" The Angel hit his Eva like a wrecking ball. The impact jarred the knife out of its sheath where it hung in mid-air for a split second before clattering to the street below. The fight went downhill from there.

* * *

It was the middle of the day in Tokyo-3 and the sun was beating mercilessly down on all the workers who were busy picking up all the little bits of Angel scattered throughout the city. Two figures were making their way down a particular sidewalk. One of them had blue hair, and the other one had a broken arm supported in a sling.

"It is very fortunate," Rei commented to her walking companion, "that your Eva knows how to fight far better than you do." She shot him a glance, but other than turning red, he didn't speak. Then again, that might have just been the heat. "You are also very fortunate I have been assigned to be your caretaker until you recover."

"-a-ahh," he swallowed nervously, "come again?"

Thus began what came to be known as the Days of Hell.

* * *

Afternoon sunlight spilled through the window of apartment 402, laying out a square pattern of light across the sheets of Shinji's bed. Well, Rei's bed, actually, but Shinji was in it. Rei walked into the room carrying a tray which held a steaming bowl of something. She wore blue sweatpants, tee-shirt, and an apron. He smiled at her. She set the tray down on his lap, which allowed him to see that the front of the apron had the words 'Kiss the Cook' in embellished print. His smile turned uncertain.

"Say aah," she said, seating herself on the side of the bed and lifting a spoonful to his mouth.

"-um, what's in it?" He tried to cover his discomfiture with enthusiasm.

"It's vegetable miso." She held the spoon closer, one hand underneath it to keep from spilling.

"W-Wait, I can eat by myself, at least-" He shifted his cast, and soup began to find its way over the edge of the bowl.

"You'll spill it on yourself." Her eyes brows ticked down slightly. "Say aah."

He hesitated, then obeyed.

* * *

The two sat in the bathroom, he on the closed toilet seat, she on a chair she had slid into the room.

"Are you sure you know how to change these bandages?" He moved his feet nervously, trying not to be skittish when she was this close to his damaged arm.

"Quite sure." She deftly unwound the wrapping. The actual cast covered only part of the fore-arm, the break being a minor one. The bandages formed a white pile on the floor, and Rei set aside the new roll of gauze. Instead of re-wrapping his arm she slipped a plastic bag over it, taped it quickly and then reached over and began unbuttoning his shirt.

"Wh-What're you doing?" He tried backing up, but was afraid to move too much.

"You should bathe before I finish changing your bandages." She had already pulled the shirt over his head.

"Alright, I guess, that sort of makes sense- AACK!" She had stripped his pants halfway off before he realized it. "Wait..." she lifted him to his feet, pushing him towards the shower, "Wait! Don't you think... aah!" he turned away suddenly, his face red. She had already taken her tee shirt off and was stepping out of her sweatpants.

"-yes?" she paused. He looked at her quickly, then quickly looked away again.

"Nothing! But..." The both of them were inside the cramped shower and she turned the water on. He gasped and hissed, then hyperventilated for a few seconds before commenting, "-d-d-damn that's cold!"

"Yes."

It was a long thirty seconds before the water warmed up.

* * *

A very red Shinji was tucked under the covers. Beside him was an oblivious Rei. She glanced over at him.

"I will awaken periodically to make sure you have not injured yourself."

His eyes flitted over to hers. "Th-thanks." They flitted back to the ceiling.

* * *

Over the next few days Rei's small apartment slowly lost most of its clutter, and quickly gained a television set and a small library. Rei followed him wherever he went, and when he returned to school two days after the battle, she moved him to the seat behind hers amidst a bunch of hoots and catcalls. Kensuke began to film what he termed 'The Tortured Life of Shinji Ikari' and followed them around the school grounds with his his camcorder. This only made Rei try harder to pamper him. Finally Shinji found solace the only place he could, the boy's bathroom.

"She's a witch," he muttered, leaning against the side of the stall and breathing heavily. "-a demoness! a-"

"-what?" A pale hand unzipped him.

"AAAH!" he nearly fell over the toilet. "-using the bathroom here!" he yelled. His eyes bugged out at a sudden idea. "Where's Kensuke?" he glanced fearfully around, expecting the boy and his camera to pop out at any minute. "Are you sure he's not...?"

"I have confiscated this for the time being." Rei lifted the boy's camcorder. Shinji glanced from her to the stall door. Rei followed his gaze. "Ah, yes." She exited the stall and shut the door fastidiously behind her.

* * *

As the days continued to pass, Rei noted that Shinji slowly acclimated himself to her care. He no longer flinched at her every move, he began to get a warmth in his eyes when he thanked her for the food, and he no longer panicked when they showered. In fact, his behavior began to get downright strange, when she thought about it.

When she helped him, he did not push her away. Instead, he usually turned some shade of red and seemed happy. But he became more adept at escaping her. It as odd that he would both want her help and at the same time desire to escape her, but she could not seem to pin down the cause of his mental disorder. For this reason, on the momentous day when Ritsuko cut away his cast, Rei informed him that he would still be in her care. He sputtered and turned red, but said nothing overt.

She no longer followed him everywhere, and she no longer waited on him hand and foot, but she did watch his behavior. And she still cooked for him, though she could never find her apron. Perhaps she had misplaced it.

In the end, what finally brought an end to the Days of Hell was Shamshel's onslaught.

* * *

Ritsuko was standing by the waiting plug seat, writing something on her notepad, when the two Children came through the door and walked towards her.

"Hurry!" she said, stepping back. Misato burst through the cargo doors behind Shinji and Rei, out of breath.

"Not late!" she huffed out, coming to a stop and catching her breath.

"So I see," Ritsuko observed icily. Rei stepped forward a pace.

"I cannot vouch for Pilot Ikari's mental health," she began. "He cannot be allowed to pilot alone."

"BWhat?" Shinji yelped.

"See?" Rei said innocently.

"But his harmonics test was normal, right?" Misato asked Ritsuko. "His psychograph was completely clear! Well, except for that one point yesterday..."

"What would you have us do?" Ritsuko asked Rei, half-sarcastically. "There's no time to switch the pilot data, and you've never activated Unit-01 anyway, so-"

"Put them both in Unit-01," Gendo grated out, from where he stood in the upper observation deck overlooking the Eva Cages. "She should have a calming effect on him and stabilize his psychograph."

* * *

Eva Unit-01 stood crouched behind a building, pallete rifle in hand, tensed for the impending attack of the Angel which was rapidly approaching from the direction of the Tokyo-3 bay area.

"Ikari, why have you been acting strangely these past few days?"

Shinji flinched, glancing over to where Rei floated near behind his right shoulder.

"Y-You really want to talk about this now?"

"Now is the best time." She calmly returned his gaze. "We should take care of it before the Angel attacks."

The building they were standing behind disintegrated, sliding apart in four large pieces.

"Well, it's too late for that!" Shinji opened fire, wreathing the Angel in explosions. Hot purple whips flashed out, cutting the gun into three pieces. The only reason they didn't cut the Eva in half was because Shinji had abandoned the gun almost immediately.

"Running away is not a sound tactical strategy," Rei observed, glancing back over her shoulder. "Head for Silo thirteen, I will ask Doctor Akagi to send up the composite rifle-"

"Screw the composite rifle!" Shinji ducked a wild purple whip, dodging down an alley, then making another mad dash and turn, ducking behind another building.

Silence.

"What I meant," Rei said, continuing her previous train of thought now that they seemed to be out of current danger, "was how you seem appreciate my help, and at the same time seek to escape."

Shinji stared at her askance. "You really don't know what's wrong?" He was turning red again.

A horrible hissing sound erupted from behind, and Shamshel's whips had encircled the Eva from behind, pinning its arms to its sides.

"It's..." Shinji struggled blindly, "It won't move! I can't escape...!"

Misato yelled something about missiles, and explosions blanketed the two combatants, to no avail.

Shinji lowered his head, breathing hard. "You really don't know what's wrong..." Either a bead of perspiration or a tear slid down the side of his face. It was obviously hard for him to believe she couldn't feel anything for him after all they had done together. Or rather, all she had forced them to do together.

"No," Rei answered, staring at him blankly. He had fantasized about this kind of thing for the days he had been incapacitated and in her care, especially after her seemingly intimate actions. Now he knew better than to think that she had meant it all that way, however much he both feared it and wanted it at the same time. Still, they were likely about to die, so it didn't matter anyway, right? After a swift mental struggle during which she stared at him cluelessly, he suddenly turned, putting his lips to hers. Ironically, his feelings were so strong that Eva turned its head with far more force, impaling Shamshel in the throat with its horn. The Angel gave an abbreviated gurgle. They both pulled away at the same time, and he saw her stunned expression before he turned back to face forward breathing heavily. He heard her panting lightly behind him, then he realized that he was free.

He lifted his arms, drew his prog knife, and thrust it over his right shoulder and into the Angel's core. He held it there until the knife stopped hissing and the Angel stopped moving.

The silence stretched for a few seconds, then Rei spoke.

"Ikari, remove your hands."

Shinji cracked open an eye. "What?"

"Remove. Your."

"Oh." His disobedient hands finally relented to his will, and he pulled them away quickly. He had not fully thought it out beforehand, but when he mimicked the Eva's actions with his own, that had put his hands right into Rei's bosom, she being perched near his right shoulder. Thinking back he found that he hadn't yet apologized, but when he tried to open his mouth, he realized that any apology he told would be a lie.


	2. Subtle Medicinal Changes

Pre-read by FanficFan

* * *

The smell of stale cigarette smoke hung in the air of the small office like a lingering guest who stayed too long after the party was over. Ritsuko crossed her legs in frustration, trying desperately not to throttle her coworker, who was snickering quietly. Maya covered her mouth with a hand. On the small screen the two women were watching, Unit-01 was in a fight for its life. Meanwhile, the the grainy voices coming from the laptop's speakers detailed the love drama going on between its two pilots.

"Don't look so mad Sempai, I think it's sweet!" Maya crooned to the laptop, unaware of the true extent of her 'Sempai's' fury. "I remember how I was at their age..." Maya went on as Ritsuko seethed quietly.

It wasn't enough that the simpering blue-haired upstart had wheedled her way into Unit-01 on such pathetically transparent grounds, but now there wasn't even anything she could say about it. The two pilots had turned in synchronization ratios that were far higher than anything that should have been theoretically possible in this stage of testing.

On top of it all, her cramps were worse than usual.

"You're on your period, aren't you?"

Ritsuko frowned at the young woman's worried look.

"Is it that obvious?" She bit out. Shame and discomfort curled her lips into a grimace.

"Don't worry about it," Maya laughed lightly, "we all go through it at some point in the month..."

Ritsuko narrowed her eyes, watching the small comm box at the bottom right hand of the display.

_Some of us don't._

Although the image was small, it was obvious Rei was paying attention to Shinji, a calm smile on her face.

_But that can change._

An evil smile crept across Ritsuko's face as she studied her albino enemy.

_Nothing overt, nothing obvious. It won't even cause her any damage. After all..._

She chuckled, and Maya looked up at her curiously.

_It's only natural._

Her red painted nails punched Rei's speed-dial. The phone hummed for a few seconds, and then...

"Yes?" Rei's calm voice. Unsuspecting. So completely innocent and naïve.

"I need you to come in for your scheduled checkup up." Immediately she cursed herself. The battle had been over two weeks ago, and while all pilots involved in any battle had one, it was usually very soon afterwards. Usually within twenty four hours.

"My next scheduled checkup is in two days. Do you wish to reschedule-"

"Just come in...!" Ritsuko took a breath, gathering her wits and modulating her tone. "Just come on in now, and we'll take care of it right away."

A pause as Rei evaluated this change. She had no reason to suspect anything. She would probably assume that Gendo himself had ordered the change for some reason.

"Yes ma'am," the girl answered crisply. The beeping of disconnect and dial tone quickly followed.

* * *

The towers of Tokyo-3 were prisms of light, refracting the dramatic orange colors of the sunset. Rei did not pay any special attention to the beauty surrounding her as she strolled towards the short squat building that housed the linear rail line down into the Geofront. Her thoughts were distant, back in the entry plug of Unit-01, where her fellow pilot had touched lips with her. A pink shade crept across her cheeks, as if she wore a light dusting of make-up.

These feelings were unusual for her, something she had never experienced before. She had the sneaking suspicion that she was not meant to feel them, because they were slippery, elusive, and tantalizing. Whenever she focused on them they would slither away, melting into the background. Other feelings she had experienced did not behave this way.

The taste of good Miso, the color and tint of the trees spread throughout Tokyo-3, the warm smile of the Commander when they talked of Eva, these feelings could be brought up in her mind, and intensified. The feeling she had just before the Incident when she saw her fellow pilot's tortured expression, and then felt his breath tremble as his mouth touched hers, it touched something primal in her that bloomed into a beautiful flower of sensation, then retreated just as quickly, as if some alien force were suppressing it. As if a damper had suddenly been activated, numbing her completely.

She toyed with the strange and powerful feeling, seeing just how far she could push it before activating the cloak of numbness. Soon the effort exhausted her, and she reluctantly forgot. Her steps took her quickly and efficiently to Doctor Akagi's office, and the scheduled appointment. As she stepped into the office and waited patiently while the Doctor poked and prodded her in the usual fashion, going through the scheduled checkup, she saw only the blank professional mask the woman always wore. She didn't see the menace in a glint of her eye, or the way the right side of the woman's mouth had developed a slight tick.

"This is a long-term mental relaxant." The woman held up a hypodermic with as yet unnamed sallow fluid in it. "I believe it will help you in your efforts to synchronize with Unit-00."

Rei blinked, nodded, held out her arm.

_Like a lamb to the slaughter,_ Ritsuko's eyes said. Rei didn't notice.

* * *

Walking back to her apartment, Rei idly rubbed her arm on the spot of the injection. As she walked, she felt subtly refreshed, no longer tired. She gathered her courage and mentally approached the Forbidden subject. Closing her eyes momentarily, she summoned an image of Shinji, the one right before the act.

_The feel of his lips had been seductive against hers. The need she felt from him cried out for answer, for a return of his feelings. For passion._

She tripped, barely catching herself before she ran into the wall of the building beside her. She leaned against the warm steel, bringing a hand to her chest, feeling her racing heartbeat and the rush of heat to her face.

The barrier was no longer there. Slowly her breathing returned to normal, her heartbeat slowed.

What had changed?

Walking slowly on her way back to her apartment, she happened to pass by a magazine shop, and the lurid covers her eyes normally passed over with no more than a glance were now calling out to her. She stopped before the entrance to the store. Instinct made her glance around, as if she were about to be caught doing something naughty. Quickly she pushed open the door and stepped inside.

Back at her dilapidated apartment complex, in her room, she shut the door behind her, leaning against it and breathing heavily, her heart beat once again hammering in her chest. She barely remembered picking a half-dozen magazines at random, paying for them with a quick swipe of her card, then pushing past a stunned couple who looked over their shoulders at her in bemusement. The trip back to her apartment was one long smudge of daring, adventure, embarrassment, excitement. She normally didn't do this kind of thing. She might occasionally visit the library, but only for study, for research. Never for entertainment.

She flopped down on her bed, spreading the magazine before her. Picking one at random, she pulled it towards her. The smell of lush perfume tickled her nose, as if the whole magazine had been doused with the substance, and the half-naked man on the front cover made a blush rise on her pale skin. Reaching forward a trembling hand, she opened the magazine.

Two pages later, her blush felt like it had become permanent. Three pages after that, she had unconsciously put a hand over her mouth, which had fallen open. She hastily shoved all the magazines under her bed and pushed her face into her pillow, trying to erase the images she had seen and the words she had read.

This effort lasted all of thirty seconds and then her scrabbling hand found the magazine and dragged it back out.

* * *

Rei's mind reeled as she lay on her bed. The magazines had been hidden in a safe place, but it didn't matter. Their pages had been burned indelibly in her memory, and she was unsure if that was a good thing or not. She shook her head, returning her thoughts to more important matters.

Ikari – no, Shinji. As intimate as his action had been, she could call him nothing else. Shinji had not returned after the battle, two weeks ago. This had been a let-down at the time, but it had not been something she could control. He had undoubtedly gone back to living in his own apartment three doors down.

Now it was a far more important matter to her. Now that her magazines had revealed to her his true intentions, she didn't know how to act around him, so maybe it was a good thing he was gone. Could he actually be ready for...? In her mind she thought of a particularly lurid picture in one of the more flagrant of her magazines. She substituted him for the male in the picture, and imagined herself as the female in that same picture.

A flush of red swept across her face.

A sudden rising wail made her jump in embarrassment and guilt.

Tokyo-3's alert siren. She looked out her apartment's window. In the distance she saw a speck, which might have been Ramiel's diamond form, or it might have been a bird slowly winging its way through the doomed city.

Trouble was approaching, in more ways than one.

* * *

The Eva cage area was full of tension, but none of its inhabitants had the complete picture as to why. Ritsuko glanced towards Rei as if the girl were a ticking time bomb and she was double-checking the timer. Rei stole a glance at Shinji, and just as quickly looked away before her pale skin gave her away. Shinji was red even without his skin being pale, and he was not looking at his fellow pilot, the girl he had kissed in the last battle. Gendo glared down at them from his perch above.

"What's taking so long?" he grated out, his voice amplified by the PA system. Everyone jumped, each for their own reasons, and looked guiltily up at him. Rei was the first to speak.

"I still cannot vouch for Shinj- f-for Pilot Ikari's mental health-" she immediately cut herself off, keeping firm control over any possible blush. She had not intended to say that. It had just slipped out, propelled by the part of her that recognized a very important fact: if the two of them were locked into the same entry plug, he would have nowhere to run. Shinji began to sweat.

"Now that's just not true, I feel fine...!"

Ritsuko stared up at Gendo in astonishment. She saw him slowly breaking, as he always did when it came to Rei. He would willingly believe her over anyone else.

"Let me get this straight," the good Doctor ground out, throwing a caustic glance in the albino's direction, "The Third Child is too mentally unstable to be allowed to leave your care, but he's not quite mentally ill enough to be put into a straight-jacket. Is that right?" Rei almost gave a hesitant nod, but Gendo spoke, saving her.

"We're wasting time, Doctor. They did well before. Put them both in Unit-01."

Ritsuko gave a disgusted sigh.

"Come along, then." She turned on her heel, not bothering to glance back to see if they were following.

"No." Rei's soft voice stopped the woman cold. She turned slowly, her expression livid.

"What did you say?"

Misato arrived, suddenly banging through the doors with enough force to set one of them halfway off its hinges, making Ritsuko jump.

"Launch Ev-! Oh, good, I didn't miss it this time..." The raven-haired Captain gave a nervous laugh, catching sight of Rei and Shinji.

"You will launch a decoy," Rei said, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. She had not even flinched when Misato had entered. Ritsuko's right eye began to twitch. She opened her mouth, but Misato beat her to the punch.

"Actually that's a good idea," the woman said cheerily. "That thing out there looks like a floating battleship, we shouldn't just charge headlong-"

"You stay out of this!" Ritsuko stabbed an angry finger at her friend. "You two," she turned back towards the pilots, "will launch in three minutes, and that's final!"

"Hey now," Misato said with a nervous laugh, "I _am_ the Operations Director, so you can't just-"

"We will not launch," Rei retorted calmly. "I refuse to be rashly launched into what will turn out to be-" A soft sort of throat-clearing sound stopped her. It had come through the PA system. She glanced up to find Gendo shaking his head madly and waving a hand. He went back to his usual icy glare when Ritsuko happened to look up. "Never mind why we won't launch," Rei said. "We just won't." She met Ritusko's eyes and silently dared her to argue.

"I... but... you-" Rits stared around, her mouth opening and closing ineffectually such was her rage.

"Well, let's launch that drone then, haha...!" Misato's voice was nervous as she looked around and tried to figure out for the life of her why the atmosphere was so strange.

"Fine." Ritsuko turned and stormed off, her voice trailing off as she left. "Do whatever the hell you want, but don't come crying to me when you all..."

Everyone was soon gathered on Balthasar's command deck, watching as the giant foux-Eva was slowly rolled out to one of the launch rails. Half a minute went by, and Maya tapped the last of her instructions into her keyboard, then sat back. The decoy shot up the launch rails amidst a welter of sparks.

"Oh no!" Lieutenant Shigeru suddenly leaned over his own terminal, eyes wide. "I'm reading a high-energy reading inside the target! It's going to-" The base suddenly shook, and the screen fuzzed for a moment as the computers began to depict what had happened. On the holodisplay the city was spread out, short blocky buildings eclipsed by the massive diamond form of Ramiel, the Fifth Angel. The doors to an entry point crosshatched open and the small figure of the fake Eva Unit-01 could be clearly seen for the split second before a white-hot beam lanced from one of Ramiel's leading edges. The horrible beam of destruction went in one side of the decoy and out the other, vaporizing it instantly and burning a hole through the city blocks spread behind that particular entry point.

"See?" Rei's voice dripped with self-justification. "Had this been a real Eva, that beam would have cut through the chest armor and sliced the pilot in half-" Maya threw up noisily, retching into a nearby trashcan she had slid over. Ritsuko laid a comforting arm on the poor young woman's shoulders, and glared at Rei. The albino glared back, her arms around a shivering Shinji who was still looking at the destruction depicted on the holodisplay.

"We have work to do," Gendo said icily.

Thus, two young women began two separate operations, and the both of them began to get very frustrated.

* * *

Operation Yashima, first attempt

Captain Misato Katsuragi stood behind her underling, Lieutenant Makoto Hyuga, her hand light on his shoulder as they watched a computer screen intently. She was unaware of the rather lewd thoughts her hand on his shoulder spawned within his mind, but he didn't let out the secret.

On-screen, a fake Unit One floated out over Tokyo Bay, dragged along by a destroyer, commanded by a very brave captain. The fake Unit raised its gun and disappeared under a fierce onslaught of charged anti-protons.

Ramiel continued to drill down towards the Geofront, and Misato suppressed a curse

* * *

Operation Coitus, first attempt

Rei Ayanami crept down a hallway, her back to a wall, as quiet as any JSSDF Spec Ops soldier. She stopped at a bend in the hallway, peeking around the corner. A blissfully unaware Shinji Ikari was folding his plug suit and putting it away in his locker.

She pulled back, leaning back against the wall. She took a deep breath, ran her hands down her face, and gathered her courage. Around the corner, Shinji cursed quietly. His suit had fallen from his hands onto the floor of the cramped locker. He leaned into the small space, bending down to retrieve the rubber suit.

Rei flew around the hallway corner at a run. He wasn't in her field of vision, but the metal locker door, which stretched from the floor six feet up was open, and it blocked the area where she had just seen him. She crossed the distance in a few quiet leaps, slamming the door aside, and coincidentally, shut.

Shinji wasn't there. She looked around in confusion. There were two entrances to the boys locker room. She glanced at the other one. Perhaps he had left for some reason. She padded quietly over to that exit and peered down the short hall.

Empty. She began walking. He could not have gone far.

She was too far away to hear to low mournful cry issuing from the vents of the locker door.

"-ow-! Umm, who's out there?"

Banging noises on the now-stuck locker door.

"Hello? Anyone?"

* * *

Operation Yashima, second attempt

A low rumbling echoed out from a hidden tunnel in a low rise near the bay-side suburbs of Tokyo-3. A set of train tracks led into the tunnel, and a heavy rail car hummed slowly out of the tunnel. The short powerful locomotive came first, followed by a low car that held a squat cannon that hummed with power.

The cannon's short cylindrical barrel elevated into the air, and then stopped. A blinding white flash shot from the weapon and screamed downrange towards the intruder. A dozen meters from the giant diamond a vibrating purple hexagon of light appeared, reflecting the powerful burst of charged positrons like a ping-pong ball.

Its return shot vaporized the hidden tunnel and devastated the surrounding area.

"Damn!" Misato cursed, and Hyuga jumped. He took the opportunity to glance back at his beautiful superior officer and pushed his glasses up on his nose.

"The energy mortar was destroyed," he said unnecessarily.

"Yeah, I see that." Misato toyed with a pencil, running the facts about this particular Angel through her mind.

* * *

Operation Coitus, second attempt

Shinji walked down one of the hundreds of hallways in the Geofront, sucking on a nasty looking cut on his hand. After escaping from his own locker at the expense of the aforementioned cut, he had spent the next few hours searching the Geofront for Rei. He was unaware she had spent the entire time trying to find him.

He suddenly found himself pushed against the wall by a slim shapely body. He jumped and looked around, finding Rei's quietly frustrated expression.

"I have found you," she said, pressing him against the wall with her body and arms. "Do not try to escape."

"Ayanami!" he gasped. "A-Actually, I was trying to find you too." He was aware how hollow those words sounded, even though they were true.

"Good," she purred, slowly tilting her head towards his, as if savoring something sweet, "That's very good."

"Well, anyway," he gulped nervously, "I wanted to thank you for back... there. If I had launched, I would have been injured-d- hey...!" He gasped in surprise as she touched her lips lightly to his neck and began walking them towards his. She pulled back, hearing tapping footsteps quickly approaching.

"Shinji! You're injured..." Maya exclaimed. "C'mon, we have to go to the infirmary and take care of that before the battle..."

Maya led the boy away as Rei glared a hole through the woman's back.

* * *

Operation Yashima, third attempt

An F-Type flying wing air transport was busy inscribing a giant circle around the Angel, which was still busy digging towards Gendo's hand.

"A hundred meters closer," Misato instructed the pilot for the fourth time. The craft tilted gently and angled closer to the Angel.

"High intensity buildup detected inside the target," Hyuga warned.

"Break off!" Misato yelled. "Return to base, good job..." The pilot didn't have to be told twice. The transport left, and the Angel powered down, deciding to conserve its energy for all the horrible things it intended to do once it reached Gendo's hand.

"So," Misato murmured, chewing on the end of her pencil. "It attacks everything that gets within a certain range. This has possibilities..."

* * *

Operation Coitus, third attempt

The sleeping form of the Third Child drew her like a moth to a flame. He was in triage room thirteen, lying on a bed, his hand bandaged. Probably he was tired and was getting rest before the battle while he could. Rei pushed the cart with its tray of food next to his bed and drifted closer. He didn't move. She reached out and put her hands on both sides of him and bent lower towards his face. No response.

_Good. He is a heavy sleeper._

She began to pull back, satisfied with this knowledge, but his calm face enticed her. She paused, wavering momentarily.

_Maybe just a taste._

She hesitantly closed the distance towards his lips. She glanced back towards the door, hearing nothing. A quick glance to the clock showed they still had over an hour till launch.

_Maybe I'll have time for the whole meal after all,_ she decided, straightening up and walking over to lock the door. She stripped to her underwear and crept softly back over to his bed. He still had not moved. She leaned back over him, savoring the moment. She had almost touched his lips when he came awake. She froze. She suddenly pinched his nose with one hand and put the other on his chin, then looked up in surprise.

"Oh good, you are okay," she said, feigning relief. "I was... attempting CPR."

"Umm, in your..." his voice was muffled, since she still had hold of his nose. She released him. "In your underwear?" he asked, his eyes glancing over the pale skin of her stomach.

"Well... it's warm in here." She fanned herself with her hand lamely, her face flushed. "Don't you think it's warm?"

"Aah, y-yeah..."

Silence spread uncomfortably.

"Oh. I brought you food." Rei gestured helpfully towards the tray. Shinji's eyes didn't even budge towards the food. Rei waited, perhaps hoping he would take the initiative. He didn't.

_You're loss,_ her expression said, and she slowly redressed herself as Shinji picked at his food.

* * *

Tokyo-3's airport was located on the inland side of the city, out past the suburbs. There were several reasons for this, not the least of which was the fact that giant mega-scrapers were anathema to flying planes, and also because the air-strip had to be big enough to handle an incoming or outgoing hyper-sonic transport, which was a large plane by any standard.

At any rate, on this fine day the airstrip was cluttered by more than a dozen F-Type air transports. Their giant bat-like shapes were scattered about like the tail end of a failed boomerang class. Eva Unit-01 stood silently beside a scaffold on which a short Mexican stand-off was taking place.

Shinji, Rei, and Ritsuko stood on the scaffold, beside the Unit's partially ejected entry plug. Shinji made a move to step out onto the plug and into the seat inside. Ritsuko put a hand on his shoulder stopping him.

"This is going to be a dangerous mission," she admitted, looking towards Rei with an expression of distaste. "Pilot Ayanami, enter the plug and sit back against the seat."

Rei complied, jumping lightly onto the plug, quickly lowering herself into the seat.

"You will sit in front of her," Ritsuko told Shinji. The boy glanced fearfully towards the pod, considering his chances.

"Are-Are you sure-"

"It's not safe for her to drift about in your pod like she did in the previous battle. The LCL would cushion her, but it's best not to take the chance of pointless injury." The woman twisted her mouth into a withered smile. "What, you backing out?"

By this time Rei had lifted herself in the seat, probably curious at the delay. He saw a puff of blue hair over the edge of the pod. "Uhh..." Her eyes appeared to be twin pools of crimson sorrow at his hesitation. "No." He steeled himself, straightening his shoulders and walking towards the pod. "I'll pilot with her."

_It's going to be a long day, _he thought, slowly lowering himself into the pod, trying not to pay attention to Rei who was already sitting back in the seat. He sat down, his nerves jittering. He attempted to sit forward, trying not to unnecessarily touch her, but the midsection restraint pushed him back, locking them together.

He let out his breath in surprise. He had half-expected her to take advantage of the situation, but she was just sitting there, her posture stiff, her hands on the butterfly controls. He was unsure what to do with his, and finally folded them in his lap nervously. That didn't make much sense, as he was about to go into battle, and had to control the Eva. Steeling himself, he reached out and put his hands over hers on the controls. He felt her tension.

"Is something wrong?" he asked hesitantly.

"Why would anything be wrong?" she responded, and if anything, her voice sounded sulky. He almost turned around, but stopped himself at the last minute.

_Long, looong day..._

Soon they were in the air and Misato was explaining the plan to them over the comm network as they flew.

"Alright. Just to repeat, we know the Angel engages any potentially hostile target that approaches it at a certain distance. To get around this, we are going to do a mass air-drop of twelve decoys and your Unit. Hopefully this will allow you to get close enough that its beam weapon can't range on you. After that, you will engage it as you are able.

There are two heavy weapons elevators in the Angel's shadow, but the control lines to one of them have been damaged by its drilling. We'll send you the composite particle rifle first, and then thirty seconds later we'll send you the modified shuttle-shield we've managed to prepare. It won't be able to stand up against the Angel's main weapon for long, but then again, the Angel shouldn't be able to hit you with that weapon either. The shield is just there to increase your options. Are you ready?"

"Yes ma'am," the two pilots answered.

"Alright, drop!" Misato yelled, and the Eva-with-decoys dropped into the slipstream down towards the Angel below.


	3. Who Got the Worm?

A/N to E. Naki - well, technically I guess I could have made a joke about Ramiel going down to have sex with Lilith, but then, canonically, do any of the Angels really know that's Lilith down there? Hard to say, hard to say...

* * *

Preread by FanficFan

* * *

Sunlight was fading in the evening sky, with the last rays glinted off the falling decoys around them. He and his passenger were in the real Eva near the tail end of the bunch, and they were falling towards the giant diamond that floated over the retracted buildings of Tokyo-3. The Angel had extended a drill into the armored pavement below and was in the process of installing an unauthorized elevator shaft. It was their job to stop it.

His piloting companion squashed behind him in the seat gave a soft sigh, reminding him of her presence and the uncomfortable atmosphere that had hung in the small entry plug for the past half-hour. He honestly had no idea why she was upset. She was the one who had taken him in and done all those embarrassing things with him.

"Ayanami."

No answer. In fact, he felt her stiffen even more, if that were possible. His lips thinned. He had an idea of what she wanted, but he'd be damned if he would give in over something that silly. Especially after all she had put him through.

"Ayanami, if you don't tell me what's wrong, I can't apologize for it."

And if there was anything he was good at, it was apologizing. Unfortunately she was already well aware of that thanks to their short period of cohabitation. Below, one of Ramiel's leading edges began to sparkle and glow. A white beam flashed out and punched through the lead decoy, vaporizing it. Behind him Rei was still as stiff as a mannequin.

"Look, Ayanami, I don't think-"

Another bright flash took out a decoy, this one close enough to rock Unit-01 in its slipstream.

"This is ridiculous! Rei-"

"-yes, Shinji?" She purred into his ear. He swallowed his anger as the Angel continued to transform the decoys into large balls of plasma around them. Misato's face popped up in a comm box, her cheery expression lined with interference.

"Hey, Ritsuko tells me you're about to make landfall, and the MAGI predict you have a seventy-eight percent chance of making it intact into the Angel's shadow. I just wanted to say good luck before we lose contact, because the closer you get to the Angel, the worse the electromagnetics are going to get-" the rest of her speech was swallowed in static.

"Well, if it's not one thing it's another," Shinji sighed. Then he lost his breath when they landed with a crash and Rei pushed the Eva into a run. "Wh-hey, hold on!" Effectively, through their shared synchronization with the Eva, it felt like Rei had one hand on the seat of his pants and the other on his shoulder and was pushing him along at break-neck speed. "Look, Rei," he began, trying for what worked before, "can't we just talk about- oh God building!" Rei dodged the building, jumping over a small park and running along the next street over. Trying to move diagonally along linear streets was a pain, but it beat getting turned into a ball of flame, like the building just ahead. Wait. "Rei! Look out-!"

* * *

Comforting arms were around his shoulders, and he began to turn into their embrace, until he remembered who's comforting arms they were. "Aaah!" He flinched away, but he and Rei were both locked into the same plug-seat so that didn't work either. Something heavy was in his hands, or rather the Eva's hands. It was the particle rifle. "Y-You jumped through a burning building," he mumbled, checking the rifle's energy capacity and trying to keep his hands from shaking.

"We are alive," Rei replied. It was a sound argument on the surface. Then Shinji noticed that the rifle's energy level was suspiciously low.

"Rei-"

"-yes, Shinji?"

He tried to ignore her coy tone.

"-umm, why is there a charge missing?"

She lifted a hand, wordlessly pointing upwards. Shinji glanced up. They were standing in the Angel's shadow.

"-aaah!" He lifted the rifle, but before he could fire Rei had laid a hand on his arm.

"Calmly," she said, lowering his shaking grip. "I have already tried. Its field is impenetrable."

"Then what-"

"As soon as Doctor Akagi sends the shield up, we will climb the Angel's drill and when we are close enough to its AT-Field we will physically degrade it. Our close proximity should allow us to do so even though it is very powerful-" Shinji put a hand on her arm, silencing her. "What?" she asked. He pointed. The shadow was changing. They looked up in time to see Ramiel come apart at its seams, separating into four smaller diamonds plus a thin central spine. In the exact center of the spine was the unmistakable red glow of the Angel's core.

"That was not in the plan," Rei noted. "In fact, it should not have been able to... no, don't!" Shinji had raised the rifle towards the core and was taking aim. "Don't waste the energy charges," she said, her hand on his arm. Outside, the outrigger diamonds were drifting further from the central spine, which was reshaping itself and contracting in towards the core. "We should retreat. Now that we know it can transform, we can set up a sniper position and take advantage-" Shinji pulled the trigger.

A dense burst of high-energy positrons arced from the barrel up towards Ramiel's core. The air near the core wavered an opaque purple.

"Why did you do that?"

Shinji looked into quietly furious crimson eyes and began to sweat. While he decided what to say, the shield rose into view from the open-air heavy-duty elevator. Rei turned the Eva and picked it up, then was about to return to castigating her intransigent copilot when Misato's cheery comm box opened back up.

"Great work, Shinji! The MAGI are recalculating for the field interference, so-" Rei blinked, looked back out towards the Angel, frowned. The Angel's core was cracked, and the outriggers had stopped moving. The blast appeared to have penetrated its AT-Field. She lifted the rifle and fired twice. Two positron bursts reflected off a purple field. They did not go through.

"Whatever." Rei leaned back with a sigh, taking her hands from the butterfly controls.

"Hey," Shinji said, "don't be like that-" Scalding pain made him turn the shield and hunker down behind it. One of the outriggers had fired. "Why didn't our shots go through just now?" he asked Misato's comm box. "It went through just a second ago..."

"We don't know! Just hold tight, the JSSDF-" Her signal cut off, awash with lines of interference, and a different diamond fired, forcing Shinji to turn the shield again.

"R-Rei, c'mon!" He lifted her hands to the controls, but they were slack.

"You'll figure something out," she said laconically.

"What?"

Explosions enveloped the diamond that was firing on them, and it turned slowly. He could hear cheers from Central Dogma as the swarm of VTOLs in the distance opened up on the Angel. Even if their weapons were ineffective, the Angel was paying attention to them.

_My shots went through, but Rei's didn't._

_No, that's not right. They went through before, but now they don't, that's all._

The diamond shot a fiery lance into the VTOL swarm, popping a few of them. Shinji triggered a shot into the back of the diamond, frowning as it was absorbed as thoroughly as the JSSDF barrage. The albino statue behind him snorted once, in derision. The physics that allowed one to snort successfully in LCL were the same ones that allowed one to visibly cry, probably.

"Look," Shinji huffed, "I don't see _you_ coming up with any ideas..."

Rei gave him the same look a glacier gives a man with no coat.

"What ideas are there against a transforming Angel that plays favorites?" she hissed icily.

"Transforming..." Shinji grew thoughtful. He was forced to shift the shield minutely to counteract against another diamond which had just opened fire. "That's it!"

* * *

A trail of wrecked VTOLs led into the city. They stopped at a certain damaged building. Its upper levels were partially collapsed, as if something heavy had been dropped on top of it. Some distance away from the building was a wrecked heavy bomber. One more crashed plane might not have seemed unusual, except for the Eva-sized boot-print on top of the fuselage.

Deep in Central Dogma Maya was giggling like a school-girl and Ritsuko was grinding her teeth together in frustration. The two of them were watching a play-back of the battle. Shinji's Eva had just made an aerial assault on one of the Angel's outrigger diamonds. Ritsuko furiously turned off the monitor.

"Oh," Maya exclaimed, "it was just getting to the good part!"

"Like I care," Ritsuko sniped.

"You know, you sound like Pilot Ayanami when we got them both out of the entry plug. It's almost like she's your daughter, I think-"

"Heaven forbid that I'm related in any way to that wretched albino..." Ritsuko exclaimed as she stomped off.

* * *

Everything was black and comfortable. The first thing he heard concerning the outside world was a very familiar grumbling and sniping. "Look, Rei," he mumbled sleepily, "whatever it is, I'm sorry, so can we just-" Slender hands grasped his shoulders and he blinked stupidly at the hazy mirage of an oval face and short-cropped hair.

"I'm. Not. Rei," the very Rei-like voice bit out. "You're the second person to link me with that... that..." The hazy face coalesced into Ritsuko Akagi's furious expression. "Forget it. You're still recovering so I'll let you off, but the next person to make that mistake won't live to make another!"

"Sorry," Shinji groaned, sitting up and wiping his eyes. "So, did we-"

"Yes," Ritsuko anticipated his question, "After you physically attacked the outrigger diamond, the Angel began transforming again. You then penetrated its weakened AT-Field with the remaining charges of your particle rifle. It's dead."

"Oh, haha," Shinji scratched the back of his head, "it was just a guess, but I only thought of it because of Rei-" Ritsuko's bleached eye-brow twitched once, "-umm, I mean, because Ayanami said something. Where is she by the way?" he glanced around at the other hospital beds, trying to look innocent.

"She's gone," Ritsuko said quietly.

"Wh-What? G-Gone, you mean- dead?"

Ritsuko burst out laughing. It was a wheezing laughter that sounded like dry leaves scraping across the cobblestones of a deserted overgrown street. It was the first time he had ever heard her laugh, and he devoutly hoped it would be the last as well.

"No," the woman tried to catch her breath, "I didn't mean it like that. She's already been released from the hospital."

"Oh. I see." Shinji was still shivering from the laugh.

"Thank you," Ritsuko gasped, "I haven't laughed like that in a long time..." She signed his release form, still chuckling and wiping the tears from her eyes. He headed for Rei's apartment, his steps slow as he climbed the stairs of the abandoned decrepit building.

_I've got to apologize. She seemed really pissed off during that battle, though I don't have any idea why. Maybe I'll ask her when I see her. After I apologize._

He lifted a hand and pushed the buzzer on her door. Seconds counted down, then a click sounded. From the side and from a safe distance of a dozen meters away, one would see Shinji's side profile illuminated by the setting sun, his black hair lit a pale orange at the fringes. The door to apartment 402 creaked menacingly as it opened inch by inch. For a moment Shinji's eyes widened, he perhaps feeling the tendrils of panic that he should have felt, and indeed would have felt if he had been in a horror movie and the eerie music was playing.

But there was no music to warn him, so his face brightened when he noticed her dusty blue hair, barely visible in the gloom of her dark apartment. "Oh, hi Ayanami!" A subtle twitch of a light blue eye-brow made him pause. "-eer, I mean Rei," he said quickly. "Say, I just felt like I needed to apologize, so I-YEEP!" A pale arm had snaked out and yanked him inside.

The door slammed shut with all the finality of a dungeon cell.

_Dear God she's really angry!_ Shinji thought as she dragged him across the floor and deeper into her apartment. He could only catch a glimpse of her expression as she dragged him, but it was like ice carved from a glacier, and her grip was just as cold.

_I'm dead. I've never seen her this angry, so I don't know what she's capable of. She could really kill me._ Between attempts to take in air he happened to notice that she was wearing less clothes than she had when she had started dragging him in the door. She was dragging him with one arm, and with the other one she was stripping off her clothes.

_M-Maybe she always does her ritual killings in the nude. I really don't know! What have I gotten myself into?_ He closed his eyes and consigned himself to his end, not wanting to know how she was going to do it. Then he noted that he wasn't wearing pants any longer. In fact, she was completely unclothed at this point and was relieving him of his clothes as well while she dragged him.

_Of course she won't just kill me, she'll probably torture me first._ He found himself thrown onto the bed, and with the only light coming from the last vestiges of pink from the fading sunset, he was nearly blind with terror. He felt skin on skin contact as something slithered its way up his legs. Catatonic with fright he shivered at the mixture of lust and fear running through his nerves and waited for the end. The glow of sunset reflected off of Rei's face, giving detail to the animalistic hunger in her eyes, and then he passed out.

* * *

Coitus +1

Shinji came awake, blinking away a fading headache. For a handful of seconds he didn't know where he was, and so he tried to shift himself into a sitting position to get his bearings back. Tangling and grasping hands were weighing him down, pulling him back. It was dark and warm, and he had the sudden image of a multitude of arms and hands dragging him to the depths of hell. He struggled feebly, his limbs leaden with fear. His voice didn't seem to be working, so that option was out as well. Finally he turned in desperation to face the tormented souls who were dragging him to his death.

A single tormented soul blinked sleepily at him. A sliver of pale moonlight illuminated her oval face and shaded eyes. Those crimson depths brought sudden memory of what had happened, freezing him in place while his brain recounted how thoroughly Rei had violated him. He was again stuck between fear and lust, as he had been before the act. He tried not to shiver in her arms, aware that she would likely enjoy his fear.

"Go back to sleep," she whispered, her crimson eyes closing to satisfied slits. "Don't worry, you've still got hours until morning." With those words she let her eyes close, apparently content to sleep facing him. One of his arms was pressed up against her breasts and she was lying on the other one, and he was afraid to move either of them.

"How am I s-supposed to go back to sleep?" he choked out, silently cursing his nether regions, which were well aware that there was a beautiful young woman nearby and were preparing themselves for action. Her eyes opened back up slowly.

"I can fix that," she murmured, pulling him languidly closer.

* * *

Coitus +2

A hissing sound awoke Shinji, who for the second time that morning awoke and didn't know where he was. He blinked stupidly at the blinding mid-afternoon light shining through the grime-streaked window. Looking down in surprise, he realized it was the first time he has seen Rei asleep. Her face at first seemed as expressionless as it usually was, and then he noticed that her mouth was partially open. The noise that had awoken him had been a gasp.

She came awake and breathed in sharply, staring at him wide-eyed for a moment before embracing him. Protective instinct made him put his arms around her as he tried to think back if he had ever seen her with that particular expression.

"What's wrong?" he whispered, trying to get his voice back. He felt the tension slowly drain out of her body.

"Nothing."

He felt more than heard the word, as it was breathed past his ear. So she wasn't going to tell him. An idea occurred to him, and he made to sit up.

"Stay," she commanded. He paused in his attempts to extricate himself, and was caught. The weakness had gone and her eyes were back to the crimson pools of sexuality he remembered from the previous night.

"But..." he wavered, trying to tear his eyes free from hers as he pondered the various and sundry troubles he would soon be in. "But we've got school...!"

"I will teach you." She released him and raised a hand to his cheek. He was free now, but she had only let him go because at this point he was completely spell-bound.

"That's, that'll never work!" He began to sweat.

"You are saying I am incapable of the task?" She tilted her head slightly, running her hand down his arm.

"That- that's not what I meant and you know it...!" His nervous eyes were taking in as much of her as they could, as if she were a treat that might be taken away at any minute.

"Good. That's settled, then." He had already opened his mouth to argue, then she smiled and the words died in his mouth. She closed her eyes and stretched luxuriously, no longer paying him any overt attention. He felt like a fly that had been securely caught in the spider's web. The worst part was that the spider wasn't hungry at the moment, so he was forced to watch her go about her business until she was.

* * *

The two were sitting at a folding table which was covered with papers and open books. He had not complained when they had worked efficiently through every problem in the book, as opposed to the few Sensei usually assigned. When she was teaching him, her face and hand motions were more expressive than when they were with other people. Whether it was a few concise sentences of explanation or just a deftly drawn diagram on a piece of paper, he seemed to understand the material better than he had in class.

* * *

Coitus +3

Shinji stepped out of the bathroom, yawning. One tended to work oneself to death if one's tutor was an attractive female who spent all her attention on you. It was the end of the day, and he was tired, but he felt good. He stepped into the living room/bedroom to find Rei also walking into the same room, holding a tray with two bowls of vegetable-something and a sandwich wrapped in wax paper. The steam from the two bowls drifted up, mixing lazily in the air-currents from the A/C unit. She was wearing...

"-your apron!" he pointed. She set the tray down on the card table. The familiar words 'Kiss the Cook' were now visible.

"What about it?"

"Nothing!" He edged closer. "I'm... uh... just glad you found it. What's that?" He indicated the sandwich, hoping to draw her attention away from his almost-admission-of-guilt.

"I'm well aware that you will waste away if you don't have meat," she touched the top of the wrapped sandwich, "so I made you this."

"Really? Huh..."

He hesitantly lifted it to his mouth and took a bite. She turned around to return to the kitchen. His eyes bugged out when he saw that she wasn't wearing anything behind the apron. He coughed, and she turned her head giving him a curious look.

"Nothing!" he sputtered, his face red as he tried to swallow. "It's good! It tastes good..."

* * *

Coitus +4

It was night and he was undressing for a shower when Rei walked casually in, stripping the last of her clothes off as she walked. It wasn't the first time by far that they had showered together, but he still had little control over his reaction to her nakedness. As nice as it was, something felt off. By the time they had stepped into the shower, he remembered. His arm was out of its sling, so he no longer needed her to help him with the simplest of things, like washing himself.

Not that he found anything wrong with showering together just on general principle.

Rei began washing him, and he began suffering, though it was a pleasant suffering.

"Now you wash me," she instructed casually, ignoring his distress. He complied, endeavoring to keep his hands from shaking, right up to the point that the glistening sheen of soap on her pale skin drove him to push her roughly against the wall. She glanced up towards his frustrated expression and smiled calmly.

Even at that point with him pushing her up against the shower wall, when he looked into her lidded crimson gaze he still felt like he was the spider's prey, and that she had him right where she wanted him.

* * *

Coitus +27 (five days later)

Sunlight coaxed Shinji to wakefulness like a patient mother running her hand slowly through his hair. He did not remember a consecutive two days in his life that had been as good as the past week he had spent in Rei's apartment. He glanced over as if to reassure himself.

If she was a mirage, she was the most beautiful one he had ever seen. The rumpled covers of the bed were pulled up enough to stave off the air-conditioner's usual chill but not enough to hide a tantalizing preview of what lay beneath. He glanced over at the unit, which sat silent. Vague memories of turning it off at some point before going to sleep drifted through his mind. Returning his attention to his sleeping companion, he reached out and gently smoothed out the soft spikes of blue bed-hair that ran in all directions. Slight dampness of sweat made him shift in preparation to get up and turn the air-conditioning back on.

She blinked awake suddenly turning her head. The change in positions caused a line of moisture to track down her face. She swiped it away quickly, half-sitting up in bed.

"Rei, what's wrong?"

Though it was warm in the room, and he had felt the perspiration on her forehead, what he had seen reminded him of tears more than sweat.

"Nothing," she breathed, sitting up and wiping her eyes. He almost gaped at her.

"After everything, why do you still not trust me?" As he said the words he knew they were a mistake even though they were true. "This isn't the first time I've seen you like this," he continued quickly, trying to explain himself.

She slipped from underneath the covers without another word, padding over to the bathroom.

The door shut with a click that made him flinch.

Though there was not a lock on the door, he had never seen her close it while they had lived together.

With a sigh he leaned back on the bed, running a hand over his face.

Ten minutes later she came out and began dressing.

"Aah..."

He cleared his throat, but she payed him no attention. He stared at her a few more moments, wondering how she could keep from getting self-conscious.

"Why the school uniform?" he finally asked, when it was obvious no response was forthcoming.

"Because I am going to school."

Her answer made him chill with the feeling of abandonment.

"Why?" It was the question he had never asked his father.

"There is a test today."

"Oh."

He was weak with relief, and hated himself for it. He hated how vulnerable he suddenly felt. Pushing himself from the bed he walked to the bathroom. After staring at his reflection for the thirty seconds it took the sink to fill, he idly noted that the bathroom door was open. The part of him that was hurting wanted to close it, but he left it open on the off chance that Rei might notice the gesture.

He managed to catch up to her after he got dressed. They walked down the sidewalk in silence for a few minutes, then he slipped his hand into hers. She didn't respond overtly, but she didn't pull her hand away either.

* * *

Class 2-A was normally a smoothly run machine. Very few speed-bumps could truly disturb its master, the Class Representative, Hikari Horaki. Drill instructors would have recognized her as one of their own, and in fact she had already had to beat off several JSSDF recruiters with a stick.

Which was why the current state of the room was unacceptable.

"Still nothing, huh?" Akira Takahashi's voice drew her attention.

She shook her head in response, her expression hardening. Didn't they have any sense of self respect? Why would they skip like this, one day after another? They weren't delinquents, she knew that.

"They might have government work, you know..."

"Maybe," Hikari grumbled. She would rather have believed that, but Sensei usually told her whenever Rei was planning on being absent, and he had never said anything about Shinji. Not that she even had any idea why such absences were necessary.

"Well, we've got a major test today, so we'll see," Akira said, drifting back to her seat.

"Yeah, we'll see..." Her words trailed off when the offending students walked in not two minutes before the opening bell. Her radar was going off even before she realized something was odd. It took her a minute or so to decide what it was.

They were too casual, too relaxed. Neither of them were showing one iota of respect or nervousness. They had to know it was a test day; it couldn't have been coincidence they chose this day to return. That wasn't the only thing that was the matter. At first she refused to even consider it, since they were the two class introverts.

They were too close, too familiar. Their heads were almost touching when they talked, something that would have made even the closest couple in her class blush with embarrassment, but these two were showing no sign that anything was wrong.

She walked smoothly towards where the two were sitting, as quiet and as confident as the lioness of a pack. _I'll give them the benefit of the doubt,_ she decided. _After all, they'll be in enough trouble with Sensei because of the fact that they haven't done any of the assignments._

Despite that personal pledge, she couldn't help but get at least an idea of what was happening.

"Alright, just where have you two been-" She cut off her words when Shinji handed her a stack of papers. "What's this?"

"The assignments for the past few days. Actually I felt kind of bad, so I'm glad you came over here to get them..."

"How can you know the assignments?" she spluttered, shuffling through the papers, not really seeing them in her anger. "You haven't even been here-" She cut off when she realized what she held. "You've done every problem in the book! In all the books...!"

Shinji smiled in belated embarrassment, as if he had been complimented. Hikari wandered back to her seat, noting how the class was quiet now, and how she had been so neatly reversed without even receiving an answer to her original question. A quiet squeak echoed in the silence. She then realized that the class was so quiet because Sensei had arrived without her noticing, and had sat down in his chair.

"All rise!" she snapped, hoping her face wasn't as red as it felt.

The class-plus-Shinji-and-Rei took their test that morning, went about the day as usual, and received the graded papers back at the end of the day. Hikari was not quite as surprised as she might have been when they both got nearly perfect scores. Rather, Rei got a perfect score and Shinji got a few points less. She did note how Kensuke decried the unfairness of it all, looking again and again between his own paper and that of his fellow stooge.

Shinji for his part played the whole thing down, and deftly avoided the eager questions from his surrounding classmates as to whether he had been doing NERV work for the past few days. She saw quite well how he let them believe what they wanted, and how he played to a T the part of needing to keep quiet about classified matters. She also noted with some amusement that despite Shinji's desk being directly behind Rei's, somehow the crowd of students stayed a few feet away from her desk as they clustered around his, like a yin-yang symbol made out of human bodies.

_Oh well, it's not like I can say anything with the grades they got. At least they've come back to school._

She ate her words when the two pilots did not show up the next day.

* * *

Walking up the stairs towards their apartment, Shinji noted that his companion was more pensive than usual. Whether because he aced the test, or simply because his transgression had been hours before, it didn't matter. Somehow he felt that her current reticence was due to something else.

That still left what had happened that morning. Despite their circumstances, and despite the relationship she had 'pushed' on him, there were still things she didn't share with him. Still, even if it irked him, he wasn't going to push her about it. Not yet anyway.

She opened the door, giving him an inscrutable look before going in. He followed, setting his book bag on the floor and slipping off his shoes. She walked over and sat down on the bed, her eyes blank and she looked down to her hands in her lap. He paused at the unusual atmosphere.

"I have been experiencing memories of my past."

He sat down on the floor cross-legged, knowing instinctively that she was answering his question.

"You mean, when you were young?"

"Don't ask questions. Don't even talk." He opened his mouth, then closed it when her eyes bored into him. After a moment she continued. "I have memories of living an immeasurably long life in a village on a mountain. I had friends, mentors, people that cared about me. People I cared about-"

"R-Really?" He couldn't keep the disbelief from his voice. She glared at him and he wilted, remembering her command. Even her quietly angry crimson gaze couldn't keep his lips from twitching for a moment into an incredulous smile.

"You don't believe me. I should have known this would happen-"

"That's not true!" he protested ineffectualy. "But..." Her expression was impassive and cold. "I mean, you have to admit, it sounds crazy..."

"Get out."

She had returned to glacier-mode.

"What?"

"I said, get out." She fluidly got up and proceeded to drag him to his feet.

"But... but Rei...!"

"That won't work this time. Just leave me be-"

"Wait. Wait!" He scrambled around, picking up his clothes as she pushed him towards the door. She stood back and let him gather his things. He slowed down, glancing at her hesitantly. After a few minutes of slow packing she pushing him towards the door.

"Quit stalling and leave!"

"Wait! My stuff..." he glanced around despairingly. She pushed the door shut behind him, leaning back against the door and breathing out a sigh.

It had been hard enough just getting him out. She had regretted her decision the moment she had first said the words. Her final push to hurry him out the door had been for a very simple reason.

_Most of his belongings are still here. Had he taken them, he would have no reason to return._

She walked over to where one of his shirts lay half-way off of her dresser. Picking it up, she fingered the material, bringing it to her nose.

_Why didn't he believe me?_

She closed her eyes and inhaled his scent for a moment, then dropped the shirt with a sigh. Casting her gaze around, she happened to catch sight of something. Walking over to it she picked it up, turning it over in her hands. She fingered the ear-buds, hesitantly reaching up and putting them in her ears. She drifted over to her bed and lay down, rolling over on her side, holding the SDAT to her midsection as the music played softly.

He had listened to it often while recuperating from his injuries, but after a few days, he had never touched it again. The music was classical, and had a sad feeling to it. She blinked at a slight pressure change. Her door had opened. She looked over her shoulder, sat up in bed.

"I think I forgot-" Shinji's eyes widened when he saw what she was holding. "Hey! Give that back-" He reached for it, but she pulled it out of his grasp.

A scuffle ensued.

Minutes later they were both lying in bed, clothes ruffled, and out of breath, each with an ear piece in one ear, each having a grip on the SDAT itself.

After a few minutes of listening to the music she caught him glancing at her. She looked at him directly, trying to fathom what was going on in his mind. His hands shifted and she tightened her grip on the small device, but his hands had moved to cover hers, not to take it away. A blush shaded her cheeks. He closed the distance and kissed her. She did not protest, but she also did not encourage him. He turned over, moving on top of her and looking down at her impassive face. The only thing that told him she was feeling anything was the shading of red that was slowly crawling from her cheeks down her neck. Taking that as permission enough, he bent closer.

Fifteen minutes later they were both breathing hard and holding each other, their clothes even more rumpled, each still listening with half an ear to the SDAT. After a while he slipped into a comfortable sleep. When he awoke, she was gone. She had left the SDAT on the bed.

* * *

Gendo had an office deep in the Geofront. At the moment he was running for his life, trying to keep bleached-blond fury from tearing him asunder with her red-painted fingernails.

"Listen, woman," he grunted, dodging around his desk, "it was just a joke! How was I supposed to know-"

"Like I already told that fool of a pilot," Ritsuko screamed, "the next person to compare me to Rei dies!" She colored when she realized she had said the devil's name. She normally worked hard to keep from ever referring to the blue-haired slut as anything other than 'Child' or 'Pilot' or some such.

"Look," Gendo huffed, "can't we just-"

The blue-haired slut chose that moment to open the door. Ritsuko yelled a war cry and launched herself at the girl, who stepped out of the way to let the woman fly past, then stepped into the office and shut the door, locking it.

"Th-Thank you," Gendo attempted to get his breath back. "You saved my life." Composing himself, he sat behind the desk. "Why are you here, Rei?"

"You must change your Scenario," Rei instructed succinctly. "I have found reason to stay in this world."

Gendo groaned in frustration.

* * *

"-so _my_ day's been hell," Gendo muttered, "how about yours?"

"Well, I can't complain," Kaji replied airily, "but on the way here I couldn't help but notice that my plane was followed."

"Explain." Gendo's eyes narrowed.

"Yep!" the man smiled unnervingly. "This really big fish-thing kept surfacing every so often, glared at my plane, then swam back below the surface. It disappeared a couple hundred kilometers from the coast, though."

Gendo scowled, snatching the box Kaji offered him.

"Well, gotta go!" the man saluted casually and sauntered out of the office. Gendo immediately pushed the tab that began Adam's defrosting process, then stalked over to his liquor cabinet. He bent down and pulled out the strongest liquor he had, an aged Mezcal. As tequilas went, it would have been deathly strong eight years ago, and as it had aged further, he had grown wary of actually drinking it. He had almost opened it when Yui had discorporated. Almost. He shifted the bottle, staring at the worm drifting happily at the bottom of the bottle.

_I wish I was you,_ he thought to the dead creature. Standing, he opened the bottle and poured himself a shot-glass. The room was soon filled with a very pungent aroma that would have made even a skunk pause, but after the first shot of the substance, he neither noticed nor cared. Several shots later, Fuyutski walked into the office and staggered as if he'd hit a wall.

"Dear... God! What's that smell...?" His eyes fixated on the bottle in Gendo's hands. "Ahh, sir?"

"Have a drink, old friend." Gendo said, a touch of joviality in his voice.

"Ahh, 'old friend' you say?" Fuyutski was hesitant to voice his long-withheld complaints even if the man who had him trapped was inebriated.

"-or would you rather I called you 'Fuyutski-sensei'?" Gendo hiccuped solemnly.

"Hell no, sir!" Fuyutski accepted the proffered shot-glass. "Every time you call me that the world goes through an Impact, or something equally as horrible. God that smells," he muttered, sniffing the dark brown substance. "Isn't Mezcal supposed to be more amber-colored?" He sipped and nearly had a choking fit.

"Good stuff." Gendo helpfully pounded on his old teacher's back until he got his breath back. "Good stuff, just take it slow..."

Twenty minutes and several interestingly random conversations later...

"Well," Fuyutski sniffed noisily, "this is it!" He refilled Gendo's glass then sloshed the rest, including the worm, into his own glass.

"Hey," Gendo murmured, "you stole the worm!"

"Wanna do something about it?" Fuyutski slurred back.

"Yeah," Gendo swayed, reaching for Fuyutski's neck. The old man dodged, though it was probably just an accidental sway induced by drunkenness. Gendo reach past Fuyutski, snatched the now-defrosted-Adam from his container, and plopped the embryonic Angel into his own glass. "There!" Gendo croaked triumphantly. "How'd ya like that?" He plopped his glass down next to Fuyutski's on the counter. Fuyutski began to giggle.

Both men were beyond inebriated and were having a hard time focusing on which glass belonged to who. They got into a loud argument over who had consumed the most liquor so far, then both men reached over and snatched for a glass. They both downed the one they'd picked up in one gulp.


	4. My Kingdom for a Pallette Gun

Pre-read by FanficFan

* * *

A giant VTOL heavy transport approached the Tokyo-3 airport. Below it Unit-02 was slung, bracketed on both sides by mammoth exhaust columns as the transport slowed for landing. Wind whipped Asuka Langley Soryu's yellow sundress. She crossed her arms and went over the plan one last time.

_Establish dominance over the other female pilot._

_Subjugate the male pilot into a trophy boyfriend._

_Beat down any Angel or human that gets in the way._

She nodded firmly. This pathetic little city was as good as hers, and she knew of nothing that could stop her.

Elsewhere in the city a line of trucks was delivering a seemingly never-ending stream of DHL moving boxes to a hapless Misato Katsuragi's home. Asuka left to meet the caravan and supervise her takeover of the apartment building's entire floor.

_Surely they don't expect me to have less than five suites..._

* * *

Shinji finished straightening up the sheets of Rei's apartment, looking around at his handiwork. When he was worried, he cleaned. At this point in time, the apartment was pristine. The walls were scrubbed, the floor cleaned, swept, mopped and polished, the ceiling had even been wiped down.

He glanced suddenly over towards the front door, which was slightly ajar. He didn't remember opening it, but sometimes the door latch slipped. He was on edge however, because he had been catching flashes of movement every now and then. He had at first chalked it down to how he missed Rei, but then he had seen a flash of blue in the bathroom mirror. After that he began to wonder if he was going crazy.

Strolling into the kitchen, he began to make lunch, which in this case was vegetable miso ramen. Feeling nostalgic, and having time to kill, he decided to make the noodles from scratch. As he worked, he slowly ate an apple, setting it down on the counter every now and then. He set it down to take the boiling pot of noodles off of the heat, then reached back for his apple. His hand passed through empty air.

_-the hell?_

He looked back, but the apple was gone. A soft click drew his attention out of the kitchen. Stepping around the corner he looked towards the apartment door, which was shut. Shrugging, he walked back to the kitchen. His apple had probably rolled off the counter and fallen down the small space between the stove and the sink. He would have to fish it out before it spoiled.

He hummed as he worked. Despite being alone, he was generally happy when he cooked. He chopped up vegetables, adding them to the simmering water and noodles, sprinkling spices in until the kitchen filled with a tantalizing smell. With a start he realized he had made it all vegetable, even though Rei wasn't there.

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw a flash of blue in the glass door leading out to the porch. He left the kitchen and slid the door aside, stepping out onto the porch, but saw no-one.

_That's it, I'm officially bonkers._

He rested against the railing with a sigh, looking out at the landscape which seemed to swim through the heat waves. Stepping back in, he slid the door shut and walked back to the kitchen. The level of soup in the pot was noticeably lower. He glanced around in alarm, wondering if it had boiled over, but it had not.

Frowning, he reached up into the cupboard for a bowl, but his hand found empty air. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Reaching around, he finally found one. Then he dropped it when he heard a soft rustle. Jumping out of the kitchen, he saw the front door swinging slowly. He jogged out, but the breezeway was empty. Leaning back against the door as he caught his breath, his lips twitched into a smile. He chuckled, then burst out laughing. After a moment he recovered his wits and stumbled back into the apartment, still chuckling.

One level down, Rei sat on the warm concrete of the second-floor breezeway. Before her on the floor a bowl of soup steamed for a moment even in the heat. She held one of Shinji's school shirts to her nose, sniffing it. In the distance, Tokyo-3's alert siren began its forlorn wail.

* * *

Asuka strode into the Eva cages wearing her bright red plug suit like the symbol of pride and dignity that it was. Her professional footsteps slowed at the jumble of voices that greeted her.

"Well," Misato's voice was cheerful and embarrassed, "it's not like we can schedule the Angel attacks, haha!"

"But I barely had time to finish my soup." That voice was quiet but firm. It came from a girl in a white plug suit. She had to be the one called Rei Ayanami.

"So that _was_ you! I knew it! You know, you didn't have to hide, I would have-" And that one had to be Shinji Ikari, because he was wearing a plug suit as well, and there was only one male pilot. Something about this just wasn't right.

"Shut up, both of you!" snarled a bleached-blond-haired lab-coated technician who she knew to be Doctor Ritsuko Akagi. "Now, where was I..." She regained her composure as Asuka walked up. "Due to the Third Child's continuing 'mental instability'," her lip curled at this, "he will pilot with the First." She gave Rei a sarcastic look.

"What!" One of Asuka's fiery red eyebrows was beginning to twitch.

"Perhaps I made some soup of my own," Rei murmured, ignoring Ritsuko and Asuka and glancing sidelong and Shinji. "You have no proof."

"Wait just a damn minute here!" Asuka tried to interject.

"Well, what about that flash of blue through the sliding porch door? What about the front door being left open?"

"Umm, ex_cuse_ me-" Asuka put her hands on her hips and struck a pose that would have gotten her a locker-full of love letters at school.

"You are obviously beginning to hallucinate," Rei observed clinically.

"What about the _missing apple_?"

"Both of you shut the hell up!" Asuka yelled. An agonized groan issued forth from the command deck overhead. Gendo's haggard face appeared over the lip of the railing.

"Can you keep it down?" the man whined. "We're trying to get some rest here..." He was unshaven, dirty, and his hair looked like it hadn't seen a comb in twenty four hours.

"'We'? What do you mean, 'we'?" Asuka's high-pitched question made Gendo flinch. Fuyutski's deathly pale face appeared beside Gendo's.

"What's going on?" he complained. "My head's pounding so badly it feels like the entire base is shaking!"

"The entire base _is _shaking!" Asuka shrieked. "We're under attack, Gottdammit!"

Fuyutski made shooing motions as he backed away. "Just... just get in your thingy and go fight the monster-" His words ended in what sounded like a rather nasty retching sound.

"Hmph," Ritsuko huffed to herself. "If you ask me, I'd say the First is the one with the 'mental instability.'" She sneered at the girl as she walked by. "Someone who can't even synchronize with her own Eva-"

"That does it!" Rei exclaimed. "I'll show you!" she yelled softly, pointing her finger at Ritsuko's nose. The woman observed the pale appendage as if it were a rather disgusting lab specimen. "I'll show you!" she repeated. She threaded her arm through Shinji's and dragged the suddenly nervous boy towards Unit-00.

"Umm, Rei, are you sure this is a good idea-"

What Asuka said next might have started out as words but turned into an incoherent shriek of fury. Then, "-why am I still _standing_ here?"

Without further ado she stormed off towards her own Eva. Behind her she heard Maya giggle.

"Sempai, now that I think about it, she's new, so she doesn't know how things are around here..."

"Her and me both!" Ritsuko sniped back.

* * *

Though her expression showed no signs, Shinji could feel how furious Rei was by her tenseness, and he knew it wouldn't help things during synchronization. He decided to do what he could, even if it meant demeaning himself.

"I think Doctor Akagi did this just to spite us," he said with a short laugh. "You sitting in front because it's your Eva, I mean."

Rei gave him a look out of the corner of her eyes that told him she at least appreciated the gesture he was making. "How so?" she asked, resigning herself to conversation.

"Huh? Oh well, see, I've got a girl sitting in my lap-" he grunted when she elbowed him. "-a cute girl," he amended. She turned her head slightly and eyed him. He tried again. "A ravishingly cute girl?" Apparently satisfied with that, she turned back to face the front. "Anyway," he continued, "so with that kind of situation, how shall I put it... when I get 'excited' the suit doesn't want to expand, so it's uncomfortable..."

"I see," she said. "So if I were to do this..." She turned her head and nuzzled him, sliding her lips towards his. He suddenly yelped and fumbled for the pressure switch for his suit, and she laughed. He froze, his arm still across her stomach where he had reached over to hit his pressure switch. "What now?" she asked, her voice patient.

"I've never heard you laugh before."

She did not reply. He reached around her with both arms and tickled. She let out a stifled 'yeep' and reached behind her to try to grab his hands.

"What are you doing?" she hissed.

"I like hearing you laugh..." For a second her arms were crossed behind her and he put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her back towards him trapping her arms. With the free hand he resumed tickling her.

"I won't laugh!" She was biting her lip and her eyes were closed in concentration.

"You will, eventually." He continued torturing her.

"I won't," she insisted, but her voice was quavering and he could see a line of moisture trailing down the side of her face.

"See, your body wants to laugh."

"It doesn't!" she gasped, "something must be in my eye-"

They both froze when a comm box with the label '-02' opened up.

"Alright, when we launch I don't want you getting in my way-" When she saw the position they were in, Asuka's angry expression crumpled into disbelief. "Oh my God he's feeling you up!" she wailed. "Why are you okay with something like that?"

"Because he's my cutie pie," Rei answered in her usual deadpan voice. Asuka sputtered for two seconds, and then the comm box disappeared with a snap. Misato's comm box appeared.

"Launch Evas!" she yelled excitedly.

"We haven't synchronized yet," Rei pointed out.

"Oh, haha! Well, go on. Synchronize."

Her cheeks slowly shaded a light pink as Misato watched.

"I can't synchronize with you staring at me," Rei mumbled. Misato laughed, then cut the connection. The cramped plug was silent for a moment.

"What about me staring at you?" Shinji asked, releasing her arms. He could see the blush on her cheeks as she rubbed her arms for a moment then put her hands on the butterfly controls. He reached to put his hands near hers on the controls.

"Don't do that," she said. He pulled his hands back. "This will be hard enough as it is," she admitted slowly. "I don't know if I will succeed."

"Then why'd you say those things to Doctor Akagi?"

She didn't answer for a time. Then, "You don't have to stay here with me, and watch my failure. I may be hurt. The last time I tried this, I felt things I didn't like, parts of myself that are uncomfortable, that-" she fell silent when he put his arms around her midsection.

"I don't know any part of you I don't like," he said, pulling her back so her head leaned against his. "Maybe it hurts sometimes, but I still like you."

Through this speech Rei's face had slowly gone very red.

"We'll soon find out if that's true," she murmured.

* * *

Asuka was a snarling bundle of energy as her Eva was slowly trundled out towards the launch point. It took her a good five minutes to settle down, and synchronization seemed more jarring than usual. Beyond that, everything was peachy. Misato's comm box opened with a happy snap.

"You ready in there, Asuka?"

She gave the woman a withering stare.

"Just launch me," she spat, apparently with enough authority that the tech on-duty went ahead and punched the button. G-forces pushed her harshly into her seat, and she couldn't help but smile at Misato's frustrated shriek.

"No, dammit!" The woman's yell bordered on hysterical. "I didn't get to say 'Launch Eva'! Bring'er back down here! I don't care if it's against procedure you ninny, get that Eva back down here so I can-" The comm box disappeared. Soon after that she jarred to a halt, and the doors of her entry point crosshatched open.

_Finally._ She stepped regally out of the entry point and looked out towards the bay._ I'm going to see some action._ Because she was the lead Eva, she had been given the privilege of the entry point nearest the Angel's estimated position._ Now, I can finally show these Tokyo-3 upstarts what a real Eva can do- oh God. Oh Gott,_ she corrected herself. Normally, when she was startled, she reverted from Japanese to German. At this moment in time she was so flabbergasted she re-reverted back to Japanese again.

She could honestly say that she had never seen an Eva pirouette. Not only did it seem impossible for the giant biomechanoid to perform such a move without getting tangled up in its own power cord, but- and now it was jogging gracefully towards the bay. Equal parts stunned and furious, she mentally punched up a connection to the Unit and its deranged pilot. When the comm box opened, she had to stare for a moment to understand what she was seeing. The display was blotched and muddy, the visuals distorted as if the LCL itself was full of impurities. Shinji's head swam into view. He glanced briefly towards the pickup, then looked around as if startled. It took Asuka a few moments to find her voice.

"I'd like to speak to the pilot, please," she bit out sweetly.

"Huh?" he glanced back to the pickup and then looked behind him again. "Rei, s-stop that! Look, if we don't-" he glanced back towards Asuka. "H-Hi, um, she kind of isn't available right now, if you could call back... Rei!" He whipped his head back around.

"C... C-Call back? Call. Back?" Asuka could not remember a time in her life when she had been so completely furious. Such was the intensity of her anger that time was crawling. She could count each individual crack in the armored pavement left behind as Unit-00 jogged towards the shoreline. In the comm box she heard Shinji calling out for Rei the same way one calls for a cat. He was even hesitantly holding out his hand as if he expected her to sniff it. A quick movement and then he was jerked out of view. She heard an abbreviated outcry, and then the only thing audible was her own breathing, the quick and shallow breaths of one so angry they couldn't think. She teetered on the edge between fury and terror as she looked into the hazy yellow image of Unit-00's silent entry plug.

_This isn't happening. My backup isn't insane. This-_ She shook herself furiously. She didn't need them. She could beat the Angel herself. She stared for one last moment at the empty plug seat, the butterfly controls twitching subtly every few seconds, as if a ghost were operating them. Suddenly Rei's head dominated the comm box, her face distorted by the angle, and her appearance almost made Asuka's heart stop.

"-eeeheheeeheheeee!" The wild keening cry was cut off when the comm box disappeared. On the viewer Unit-00's graceful gait slammed to a halt when its umbilical ran out. The Eva turned furiously on it's own umbilical the way a dog turns on its tail. It chased its umbilical in a circle madly, finally succeeding in releasing itself from the unwanted leash. Tuning triumphantly, it took a few bounding leaps and dove smoothly into the deep waters of the bay.

"Misato." Asuka was surprised at how calm her voice was.

"Ja?" Misato's comm box opened. Behind the permanently happy Major, technicians were scrambling madly in all directions, and Ritsuko was snapping orders like a dictator.

"Send up the biggest gun you have. And a chainsaw, I need a chainsaw. You understand me, right Misato?"

"Aah," Misato looked behind her at the pandemonium. "Sort of?" she looked back towards Asuka shrugging apologetically. "Hold on, I'm not quite sure how this operates, usually Makoto does this. Let me-" Misato's comm box fuzzed, as the camera automatically followed her as she leaned over to another terminal. "There! How's that?"

A light blinked on Asuka's display. The map indicated a location behind her. She turned her head and caught sight of a weapons building in the far distance, its doors hanging open beckoningly. "That's great, Misato." She was unable to keep a hysterical smile from twitching her lips momentarily. "Yeah, I'll just go walk five miles for my God. Damned. _Gun!_"

Misato jumped at the exclamation. "No need to get snippy," she said, a sad pout marring her beautiful face. Up ahead in Tokyo Bay, the Angel broached the waters with a screech, hanging in mid-air long enough for Asuka to see the small form of Unit-00 clutching its white flanks as it fell back into the water. The Eva was riding the whale-like Angel in the same way a trainer might have ridden Shamu.

"Misato. Gun. Now!" Asuka felt herself shaking with rage but couldn't control it. Nothing in this damn city made any sense, and she was going to start shooting until it did.

"Alright, alright, I think I'm getting the hang of it. How about... this?" Two miles to Asuka's left, a weapons elevator opened.

"Warmer," Asuka said encouragingly, feeling like a mother watching her daughter try to take her first steps. _Patience, Asuka, Patience..._

Another weapons building snapped open, closer but further to the right.

"You're doing good, Misato, you're getting warmer..." A weapons building opened thirty miles away on the other side of the city. "Cold! Dammit Misato, I ask for a simple. Freaking. Gun! What's it take? Huh? I'm asking you- No, don't start crying dammit! I'm asking you a question!"

"I'm sor-ry!" Misato wailed. "It's really loud in here, I think Makoto hit his head, and Ritsuko... it looks like she's torturing Maya, it's-"

This was getting nowhere. In the distance the Angel broached the water again, and this time Unit-00 waved, hopefully to an imaginary audience. Hanging on the the Angel's flippers, the pair disappeared beneath the frothing waves.

Thinking carefully, her mind finely honed by anger and determination, Asuka opened a comm channel. This one showed an unconscious technician drooling onto his keyboard. She opened another. This one showed Ritsuko with her hands wrapped around Maya's throat. The next showed Fuyutski retching into a wastebasket. She kept opening comm channels, hoping to find some semblance of sanity. She even tapped into Central Dogma's main holo-display and nearly gave two separate technicians a heart attack when her giant head yelled up at them, demanding attention. If need be, she would open a channel to every freaking terminal in Central Dogma and yell through all of them simultaneously, if that would get her a simple chain-saw...

Brilliant.

Smirking, she formulated her mental request. It was firmly denied. _Don't toy with me, you damn hopped-up supercomputer,_ she thought, her mental voice conveying her fury. _I'm very fragile right now. Don't. Toy. With. Me! I swear to God I'll come down and rip your shiny cranium right out of the Command decks!_ She felt the computer presence shrink back slightly. _Ooh, didn't think German High Command would give me the specs for Japan's MAGI, did you? Well let me tell you something, I know every tunnel and every freight elevator in this city, and if you don't give me what I want in the next ten seconds, I swear I'll crawl down vent shaft sixteen, you know, the one a hundred meters behind me, and I'll disassemble you with my Eva's bare hands!_

There was a short pause while the MAGI decided the probabilities of Asuka going that far. It observed the humans strewn about its decks, in various states of panic. It observed through sensors as Unit-00 continued to frolic with the Angel. It came to a decision.

The weapons building to Asuka's right snapped open, its shutter doors retracting to show a composite particle rifle and a double-bladed chainsaw. Without another word Asuka reached into the building, picked up the weapons, and turned to face Tokyo Bay. The Angel had beached itself, and was slowly making its way towards the city with Unit-00 on its back.

"Alright!" Asuka bellowed out, her voice amplified by the speakers which normally served as Tokyo-3's alert sirens. "Who wants some?"


	5. REIGI

Pre-read by FanficFan

* * *

Central Dogma looked like it had gone through a chemical attack. People were moaning, crying, coughing, drooling on their keyboards, at each others' throats, the list went on. Gendo stood on shaky legs, feeling closer to normal than he had in the last in twelve hours.

_Damn..._ He gripped his head, which felt like it had been at ground-zero of a howitzer round explosion. _The last thing I remember..._ Thinking back, he remembered grabbing a drink and tossing it back. _Adam. I swallowed Adam! ...I think._ That 'I think' made him shudder, but he had no time for that now. Tottering over to the railing, he peered down on the psychological wreckage below.

"It's... It's okay...!" Ritsuko was carefully talking to a shivering Misato Katsuragi. The woman was huddled in a corner of Balthasar's command deck, looking around with darting eyes, her breath light and shallow. "It's okay, Misato! We won't fight any more, right Maya?"

"Y-Yeah," Maya gasped, massaging her throat. "It didn't really hurt at all. W-We were just joking around!"

Gendo looked behind him at a soft footstep. A boy with ash-gray hair was watching him quizzically.

"Excuse me, sir," he said in formal language, "I'm Kaworu Nagisa. The Committee sent me as a replacement. Something about one of your pilots being 'mentally unstable' or something."

"Dammit Akagi!" Gendo roared, turning to look down at the suddenly startled doctor. "Idiot woman! I thought you were just joking about putting that in your official report!"

"I wouldn't have any idea what you're talking about," Rits muttered, avoiding the Commander's eyes.

"Umm, Sempai," Maya tugged on the woman's lab-coat sleeve, "he's a pilot, right? And we've got an available Eva, so-"

"Yes yes," Gendo said, waving impatiently, "put this 'Kawori' into Unit-01. He certainly couldn't make things any worse than they already are..."

"Umm, the name's Kaworu," the boy corrected him, but Gendo had already turned and walked away from the ledge of his command deck.

"Alright, come along Kareowa," Ritsuko ordered, taking one of the boy's arm and dragging him towards the Eva cage area. "That's an interesting name, by the way. Don't think I've ever heard of-"

"No, that's because," he tried to catch his footing and follow the sharp-tempered doctor, "my name isn't-"

"Haha! Actually I think the name's cute," Maya exclaimed, jogging alongside the two and carrying Ritsuko's clipboard for the moment. "Kawizara," she tasted the name. "If I have a kid, I'll name him after you!"

"No, wait!" Kaworu called after her as Ritsuko dragged him away. "At least get the name right!" He held out an arm towards her and Maya waved back.

"Bye Kazami! Do your best!"

* * *

Ritsuko glared at the holo-viewer as Unit-01 stepped out of its entry point and walked up to stand beside Asuka's Unit. The synchronization had gone wonderfully, which made her suspicious. The way the day had gone so far, it wasn't a good sign.

"Well," a fully-recovered Misato chirped by her side, "that's one problem out of the way, but what about Unit-00?"

"Hmm..." The three women thought hard, as on the viewer Unit-00 continued riding the Angel triumphantly into the city.

"Oh, that's right!" Ritsuko snapped her fingers. "I almost forgot. We can use the Dummy Plug system to re-take control of Unit-00!" She beamed at her two co-workers. Maya turned aside, always having feared the Dummy control system, and Misato stared blankly back, not having bothered to ever have looked it up. "Alright, Makoto, I'll show you the subroutine I want you to-"

"Ooh! Ooh! Let me, let me!" Misato shoved the man out of his chair and sat down, cracking her knuckles and putting her hands to the keyboard. "I've been learning the system," she told a suddenly nervous Ritsuko. "Just ask Asuka!"

"Alright..." Ritsuko said hesitantly. "Anyway, here." She pointed to the screen. "Activate this sub-block of code, and then type in the Unit number, and that should-"

Misato began typing before Ritsuko finished talking.

Meanwhile, out on the battlefield, Asuka was busy welcoming the new pilot.

"-so remember what I said, you little gray-haired twerp! Stay outta my way and everything'll be fine! Oh, and welcome to NERV."

Kaworu listened calmly, trying not to let her anger get to him. Throughout her tirade he had been listening carefully, but she had never called him by his name, instead opting for 'twerp' or 'doofus' or even some words he didn't know.

"Excuse me," he hesitantly spoke up while she was turning away, "could you tell me what my comm box label says?"

"The label?" Asuka asked irritably. "Oh, you mean the name?"

"Yeah-"

"It says Kawori," Asuka snapped. "Stupid name, but then I'm not your parents, so whatever." She brought a red-gloved hand to her chin in thought. "Kaworu would have sounded better to me, but oh well."

"No! That actually is my name-" He stopped talking, since her comm box had already winked out. "Never mind," he sighed. A light on the control display blinked once.

_Hmm? What's this..._

He leaned closer. The light blinked again. He leaned closer, then jumped back when a box opened up. It wasn't a comm box, it was too large and too near the center of the display. It showed a girl with blue hair and red eyes. Wait. Red eyes? He knew who this was...

"Greetings!" the girl spoke. "I am Rei 2.0, **D**eranged **U**nit **M**anual-override **M**anagement s**Y**stem."

Kaworu's face became blank with incomprehension. "I do not understand," he began uncertainly.

"I'm here because your superiors consider you incompetent, incapacitated, or otherwise unwilling or unable to do your job, and-" The girl suddenly leaned forward slightly. "Oh, I know who _you_ are," she said, an evil little smile decorating her pale skin. "We're going to have a _great_ time, you and I..."

Kaworu shuddered as the temperature of the LCL dropped and all communication with the outside world was cut off.

* * *

"You _idiot_!" Ritsuko exclaimed, trying to pull Misato from her chair, "You activated the wrong Unit's dummy plug!"

"No, I can fix it," Misato assured the red-faced doctor as she typed madly. "Just hold on a sec-"

* * *

Asuka blithely ignored her fellow pilot, instructing her Eva to block any further communication attempts. She had managed to shut him up before he could ask her for a weapon. She had fought hard for those weapons, dammit, and she wasn't going to give them up to some newbie.

_Now. What was I about to do when that idiot showed up? Oh yes..._

She lifted the composite rifle, waiting patiently as the targeting hood slid into place over her head. An image of the Angel with Unit-00 on its back appeared. She wavered for a moment, hovering the targeting reticule first on the Angel, then on Unit-00.

_Choices, choices. Oh well, they'll probably get caught in the blast when the Angel explodes anyway._ She had just set the reticule onto the Angel's giant grayish form when the image in the targeting display changed to show Rei.

"Greetings! I am Rei 2.0, **D**eranged **U**nit **M**anual-override **M**anagement s**Y**stem."

"-the hell?" Asuka shoved the targeting hood off her head, but Rei's image was also in a box on her main display.

"What is your command?" Rei 2.0 asked sweetly.

"My command," Asuka snarled, "is for you to get out of my face so I can kill the targets! Target," she corrected herself. "The Angel. Obviously!" she groused.

"I'm sorry," Rei 2.0 said, though her expression looked anything but sorry, "that command is unavailable. Try again."

"Give me back my Eva!" Asuka yelled furiously.

"I'm sorry, that command is unavailable. Try again-"

"You verdammt bratty computer, I don't need a deranged... mutant... whatever you said! Now get out of my face before-"

"I'd be more respectful if I were you," Rei 2.0 admonished.

"Respectful? Just wait, I'll show you respectful-" Asuka was cut off when she felt her Eva's hand hit her upside the head.

"Stop hitting yourself." Rei 2.0 had an amused expression on her face as Asuka seethed.

"Ouch! Why'd you do that you little-" Unit-02's hand smacked into its own face again.

"Stop hitting yourself," Rei 2.0 needled. _Smack_. "Stop hitting yourself." _**Smack**_. "Why are you hitting yourself?" Rei 2.0's head tilted to the side inquisitively in a perfect imitation of the original.

* * *

"Gyaah! You did it wrong again!" Ritsuko tried to push Misato away from the terminal.

"Nooo! Let me fix it...!" Misato desperately typed. "There!" she sat back, satisfied. Suddenly a giant image of Rei appeared in the holo-display.

"Greetings!" It smiled up at the stunned technicians. "Thank you for installing Rei 2.0 on this mainframe. Please wait while I optimize this system..."

"Eerr," Misato suddenly vacated the chair. "It's all yours!" she smiled sheepishly at Ritsuko.

"Oh, I think it's too late for that now," the doctor growled.

"Ma'am!" Makoto suddenly looked deathly pale as he stared at his screen. "The MAGI report an intrusion into their core systems!"

On his screen was a display of the three command blocks, Balthasar, Melchior, and Caspar. Light blue dots of infection were spreading slowly through Caspar's block.

"Quickly," Ritsuko exclaimed. "Slow the processing speed! I'll implement the Code 666 protection system. Maya, query the MAGI and see what the time frame is for-"

"I'm sorry," Rei 2.0 answered. "The sysname 'MAGI' is no longer available. That system is now called 'REIGI'"

Silence reigned in Central Dogma for a time after that pronouncement. Makoto pointed mutely towards his screen, which showed all three processor-blocks to be a light-blue color now.

"Umm, Makoto," Misato was the first to break the silence, "could you ask the... REIGI... to activate Unit-00's Dummy Plug?"

White-faced, the man complied without thinking.

"Wait-!" Ritsuko yelled, too late. Makoto looked up in surprise.

"It worked," he said in wonder.

* * *

In Unit-00 Shinji was swimming for his life as Rei chased him round and round the plug seat. She taunted him with constant cries of "You'll eventually get tired, Shinji," or "Why don't you make this easy on yourself, Shinji?"

Now, Shinji enjoyed sex as much as the next man, but something told him that in this case he might die by it, so he continued swimming, hoping some solution presented itself.

The next time he went around past the front of the plug, he saw a light blink on the display. The time after that, a window had opened up with Rei's image on it. "Greetings," she said amicably, "I'm Rei 2.0, **D**eranged **U**nit **M**anual-" Her eyes caught Shinji running. "Ooh! I'll help," she said excitedly.

Shinji suddenly slammed into Rei, which didn't make sense, because he had been running from her. Then Rei slammed into his back, trapping him. "Who?" he turned his head frantically, but the Rei chasing him had lost her crazed look, which relieved him a bit. But that left the Rei in front of him. "What-"

"I am Rei 2.0," the Rei in front of him stated again, anticipating his question. "Since I control your Eva's functions, I control the density and pressure of the LCL. I can also send visual information to your eyes in the same way as your regular displays.

"Umm..." his mind had suddenly gone blank, though he was sure there had been something important to ask. "Aah-"

"Let's get you out of that," Rei 2.0 said, stripping him of his suit, "you won't be needing it any more."

"But..." As usual when he was presented with a naked Rei forcing herself on him, the arguments his mind made against it never made it far. Both were unclothed at this point and had him pinned between them, though by now, caught as he was between the softness and curves on all sides, escape was pretty far down on his list of priorities. There were worse ways to die, after all.

* * *

"Fricken finally," Ritsuko muttered, glaring at the holo-display. For once, all the Evas were under NERV's control once again, and things seemed to be going right. On the main viewer, the three Evas stood before the Angel, which looked suddenly lonely and unhappy it had lost its play companion. Ritsuko put a hand to her chin in thought. Misato turned to Rei 2.0's monitor.

"Kill the Angel!" she said excitedly.

"That function _is_ available," Rei 2.0 answered with a delighted smile. "Complying..."

* * *

Three entry plugs were perched near the edge of the Eva cage area, supported by three crane units. Technicians surrounded each one. Ritsuko bent over the first, Unit-01's plug.

"So, how did our new pilot do?" she asked pleasantly. "Are you okay, Keizawa?"

Inside, the ash-haired boy was huddled in the plug seat in a fetal position, hugging his legs and shivering.

"K-K-Kaworu."

"What was that?" Ritsuko asked, bending closer to hear the whispered reply.

"The n-name's Kaworu...!"

"Oh!" Her mouth formed an O of surprise. "Well, why didn't you say so earlier?" The boy resumed his fetal position, letting out a piteous moan.

An outcry to her left made Ritsuko look over in surprise.

"Ouch!" exclaimed Maya, holding her head in pain. At the woman's feet was what looked like a butterfly control which had been ripped from its mounts on the plug seat itself, but that seemed impossible. An inarticulate shriek of redheaded rage issued forth from the plug, and then out flew the other butterfly control handle, which Maya managed to dodge. Other things flew out, including the torn-off targeting interface hood, the midsection restraint, and other metallic and plastic pieces of the seat itself.

Shinji and Rei emerged from the far pod. Or rather, Rei emerged carrying Shinji piggy-back, his arms around her neck. The boy was snoring softly, his head on her shoulder.

"Is he okay?" Maya asked, jogging over to where Rei stood.

"He's tired," she replied, rearranging her grip on his legs to keep him from falling off.

"Really? What happened?" Maya asked, puzzled. "Our comm connection was cut off, so we couldn't see inside the plug-"

"He's tired," Rei repeated, a shading of a pink blush spreading across her cheeks. "Perhaps he over-exerted himself in the... battle."

"Well, hold on, let's get him onto the floor here until we get a stretcher over here-" When Maya tried to help Shinji off of her shoulders, Rei shied away, wincing slightly. "Are you injured?" Maya asked worriedly.

"No." Rei's face shaded a deeper red. "I'm sore, that's all." Which is when Maya noticed that their suits were on, but were not skintight. Rei bent down and set Shinji on the ground carefully. The boy mumbled in his sleep and reached to put his arms around her neck as she set him down. "Don't do that," she mumbled in an undertone, "not here..." She managed to untangle his arms from her neck.

Maya put a hand to her mouth and began to giggle as she backed away. She bumped into someone and stumbled, letting out a 'yeep' of surprise.

"What were you giggling about?" Ritsuko asked darkly, reaching out a hand to steady Maya and keep her from falling.

"Nothing, Sempai!" she exclaimed, "Nothing at all!"

* * *

Shinji stepped out of the boy's shower room, now dry and dressed, only to find himself waylaid by one Asuka Soryu. He stopped, since she was directly in his path, her arms crossed over her chest, her eyes fierce. He waited, but she didn't say anything, instead opting to stand there slowly blinking her icy blue eyes at him.

"Aah," he cleared his throat nervously, "you're the new pilot, right?"

"Yeah," she snapped in reply, "I'm the 'new pilot'."

Further silence ensued, but this time Asuka wouldn't completely meet his eyes. Her gaze wandered from his head slowly down to his chest, then over to the wall next to him.

"Anyway..." She coughed delicately. "-umm, how far..."

"What?" He had been hard pressed to understand her mumbled words, but she looked on edge, and he didn't want to misunderstand her and set her off. A blush began to creep its way across her face. He spoke again. "I didn't understand you-"

"I said how far have you two gone?" she snapped out, her face red.

"Me and..."

"I'm talking about you and the other pilot!" Asuka yelled, waving her arms in frustration.

"Aah..." Shinji nodded, but he was still confused. "How far... oh, you mean, how many times?"

At that comment, Asuka reddened further. Seconds later a slap echoed through the hallway, and Shinji was left by himself, a red hand-print on his cheek.

_Why'd I get slapped?_ he wondered in confusion. _She was the one who brought it up._

* * *

Walking from the Linear train portal to the apartment complex, Shinji felt things were different. Not so much because of what had happened in the entry plug during the battle. They had actually done similar things before, albeit without a second Rei.

At a touch, he glanced over in surprise. She had threaded her arm through his as they walked. He couldn't put his finger on it, but it felt like what had changed was the chase. He had always been the needy one, the person who feared being alone.

Rei lowered her hand down his arm, putting her hand in his. He glanced over and smiled, and she smiled wanly back, then looked away. Having an idea of what it felt like, he wasn't going to push her for answers. She would probably talk when she was ready.

They walked in silence back to the apartment complex and up the stairs. She stopped at her door, and he turned to continue on to his, but stopped when she didn't let his hand go. Turning to face her, he felt such empathy with how she looked, he stepped forward and put his arms around her, holding her. She returned the hug, and they stood that way for some time.

"Move back in with me." Her words were mumbled against his shirt.

"Alright." He made no move to leave, but she seemed to know his intentions. She spoke again.

"Enough of your belongings are already here that you don't need to go back to your apartment right now."

"Yeah, I know."

They stood for another time, her arms around his neck, his around her waist, and she gave no indication of wishing to let go in the near future. He meandered in his mind, not wanting to disturb her by speech or movement. It wasn't like he had anything to do, but he knew he would get tired before she would.

He shifted, and her arms tightened around his neck. Bending awkwardly, he managed to get his arm under her legs and pick her up. He balanced precariously for a few seconds before getting his footing, then carried her into her apartment. She didn't complain when he laid her on the bed, though she didn't let go either. He lay down beside her and she settled halfway onto his chest, her eyes closed. He tried to think of what to ask to start off with, but by the time he did, she had fallen asleep.

He liked watching her sleep, because that was when her face seemed the most free, not tightly controlled. As many times as he had seen her asleep, he was struck by how fragile she looked to him now. With a start he realized that the strength he had overlaid on her had been mostly in his own mind, because she didn't look any different on the surface than any other time he had seen her. He reached up and smoothed her hair, watching as her pale blue eyebrows scrunched together minutely, then relaxed. Suddenly tired himself, he followed her to sleep, his arm protectively across her back.

* * *

Gendo paced back and forth in his spacious office, sweating furiously.

_It shouldn't take this long. Adam should have manifested himself by now..._

He looked at his hand for the umpteenth time.

_Maybe that spot..._ he looked closer, squinting. _No. Just an ink smudge._

Meanwhile, Fuyutski was at home preparing for bed. He felt an unusual twinge in his right hand and looked to see the cause. His eyes widened, and he fainted dead away.

* * *

Shinji awoke to murky darkness and soft words. He realized she had started talking immediately when he had awoken, as if she had been waiting for that, and had sensed it. Searching back in his mind, he tried to replay what she had said.

Her dream, that was it.

"-beautiful place. I often wish I was there. Or I did before I met you, anyway." She ran a hand through his hair. His head was on her lap, he realized. "Even if you don't believe me, especially if you don't-"

"I believe you," he whispered. Her hands froze on his head.

She frowned. "You're just humoring me."

"I'm not!" he insisted. "Anybody would believe you, the way you're speaking now. I can hear it in your voice. I've known you long enough for that, anyway."

After a few moments, her hands resumed their fiddling with his hair. "Perhaps," she admitted. After another silence, she continued. "The last dream I had, Leliel said she was coming for me. She's my mother," Rei explained. "Sort of. Shinji," her voice husked, almost broke, "even if I want to leave this place, I don't want to be separated from you."

He swallowed and nodded, not trusting his own voice.

* * *

A giggling Maya led a dour Ritsuko onto what had been Balthasar's command deck. The MAGI's terminal was now lit up differently, a pale blue instead of vibrant yellow.

"Look!" Maya pointed, still chortling. Ritsuko's face blanched, and she chuckled once, before putting her mask back on. The three processor blocks had labels on them, similar to the MAGI. The word REIGI was clearly visible in large block letters at the top of the screen. The three processor blocks were labeled 'SWEET', 'HARSH', and 'CRAZY' respectively.

"O-kaay," Ritsuko muttered.

"L-Look Sempai," Maya quavered, "look over the edge...!"

Snorting in disdain, Ritsuko stalked over and leaned over the railing.

"Right," she muttered, her lips twitching. Someone had painted over the original names, probably at Rei 2.0's orders. "So we're standing on SWEET REI's command deck."

"And that one over there is HARSH REI's command deck," Maya offered helpfully.

"Wait, that means..." Ritsuko suddenly looked behind her up to the front of the deck on which Gendo normally stood. In bold letters were the words 'CRAZY REI.'

Ritsuko burst out laughing.


	6. Here a Rei, There a Rei,

A/N: Just noticed I hadn't responded in a while, mainly because work has been so hectic.

Greenfang: Been reading the TVTropes website, have you ^_^

Henry: Funny how a spur of the moment joke can take over the story

*returns Iarandir's salute*

*winks at jclong*

Zoro: drama? Whuzzat? My prereader dubbed this story 'crack-drama', however. Sadly there was no option for that in ffnet's story posting form

Johann: Yes, I believe that was the point where Asuka began to go bad

the Other Reviewers are regulars, they already know I love them :-p

* * *

Here-a-Rei There-a-Rei Everywhere-a-Rei-Rei

* * *

Tokyo-3 at night was beautiful, especially during the time of the waxing moon that was nearly full. The moon-light shimmered down the towering mega-scrapers transforming them into vertical reflecting pools of liquid silver. If you weren't up there to see it, however, the next best thing was to see the Geofront lit up with the pale white light reflected from the complex mirror system set into the towers themselves, as they threw sheets of silver white over the forest and pyramid below. Best viewed from one of the skylight suites given to the special few, the uppermost echelons of NERV's ranks, and any spare Eva pilot who happened to be staying over-night below the city.

The particular suite given to Shinji and Rei was one of those on the bottom level structure nearest the Linear Real station that jutted down through the Geofront armor. The main living room of the suite had part of its floor replaced with reinforced plasteel glass, nearly invisible except for trace impurities introduced during the cooling process for each massive pane. This allowed for a panoramic view of the beauty below.

Rei was lying on this part of the glass floor on her stomach, mangas spread out around her as if she and they were suspended by nothing more than an errant breeze. Shinji was over in a corner seated at a desk, struggling with an ill-tempered programming compiler. Lieutenant Shigeru's wild coffee-break stories had launched him into the world of programming. That and the fact that a piece of his girlfriend now occupied the innards of NERV's prized supercomputer.

Every so often he would hear a noise, this one might sound like a muffled cough, that one might sound like a sneeze, or maybe a sniffle. Rei didn't usually do those things, so they were obviously pathetic attempts to cover muffled laughter. He would have found this amusing on a normal day, but the learning curve for NERV's computer operating system language was steep, and it didn't help that HARSH Rei had taken an interest in his efforts, and was specially wording all the error messages he got whenever he tried to compile his simple little program. As he learned more, it became evident to him that he was rapidly learning just enough to be dangerous. Rei 2.0 had quickly honed her skills with the Taunt, and the tone of even the more mundane errors was becoming extremely caustic.

He finally sat back from his work, reasonably sure of the code in front of him. Typing the long string command for the compile function gave him plenty of time to swing between nervous excitement that the program might work, and fear of what HARSH Rei might say when she picked through his code as it compiled. He hit the fated 'enter' key and waited. Behind him he heard the soft scraping sound of Rei turning a page. As the program compiled, he pondered how their roles had reversed. Rei, who had all the knowledge she would ever need, had taken to entertainment novels and games like a giant squid to a helpless boat full of screaming people. Meanwhile, he himself had been forced away from his pursuits of happiness at the arcade and was desperately trying to study and learn things so he wouldn't feel inadequate around his knowledgeable girlfriend.

_Congratulations,_ the monitor typed out, and he knew it was bad if HARSH Rei hadn't even let the compiler give him any kind of report before she butted in. _For some reason you decided to put a recursive routine into a standard clock program. Without my fortuitous actions, you might still be sitting there, waiting for your motherboard to overheat._ What followed next was a short list of errors. At the end was a crude pixelated drawing of a tiny gift-wrapped box. Beside it were the words, _I already know what you're trying to make, and I've figured out the optimal code. Click here to see it._

The words 'click here' were very large, so large in fact that it would be hard not to click them. Behind him he heard a delicate sniff/snort combination, and even though he knew it was from the manga she was reading and not because she was looking over his shoulder, he glanced back in annoyance. She looked up at him, her face pink from suppressed laughter. She promptly took her manga and walked out of the living room.

He sat back with a sigh, running a hand down his face. He would fix the code later. As he watched, the 'click me' words were slowly getting bigger on the screen. He reached forward and stabbed the power button, turning off the monitor. Seconds later, he heard an abbreviated sniffle through the doorway. Rei had not made it far before being sucked back into her book.

The only reason the two were staying in the Geofront was because Ritsuko was running further tests on the 'changes' Rei underwent whenever she synchronized with Unit-00, and why it was different from what happened in Unit-01. They had been told to get some rest, then to report back in ten hours or so. It was the weekend, and his other two stooge-friends were undoubtedly burning up the arcades, but he would have to catch up with them later.

* * *

Shinji sat in the waiting room next to the Harmonics test area, with Rei beside him.

"Well, are you two ready?" Ritsuko stood before them, a reasonably calm 'science expression' on her face. It was a relief to Shinji that, despite how strung out the good doctor was, whenever she got back into science-mode, she returned to a semblance of normal. A good harmonics test would undoubtedly pull Ritsuko back from the edge.

"Yes ma'am," he answered. Now, if only things would stay calm through the harmonics test...

"Good," she answered, undoubtedly happy with his compliance. "Just wait here, we're still configuring the test parameters. I'll be back for you in fifteen minutes."

Shinji sat, his hands on his knees, watching the clock tick towards the time Ritsuko would be back. Beside him Rei sat, her hands folded in her lap. Tick, tick, tick. Rei fidgeted once. He cringed. _Whatever it is, just hold it._ A minute later, she fidgeted again. _Hold it, please..._ She stood abruptly.

"I must use the restroom," she said, not turning her head.

"Hurry back," he said, trying to keep the stress from his voice. The tapping of her shoes as she walked to the door sounded like a death knell in his ears. His eyes flitted to the clock. _Eleven minutes. Plenty of time. She'll make it back._

The time counted down as he sat waiting. Nine minutes. Seven minutes. Five minutes. His eyes bounced nervously between the clock and the doorway. If Ritsuko returned before Rei, all hell would break loose. Reluctantly, he left his chair and walked over to the doorway, to peek out and look for Rei.

Several rooms away, Ritsuko looked up from her monitor in time to see a flash of blue hair and an albino face go past the doorway to her room. Frowning, she left the room and looked down the hall. The girl had just turned the corner in the distance. Ritsuko jogged after her, finally catching up.

"What are you doing?" she asked, when she finally got hold of the girl's arm. Crimson eyes blinked at her innocently.

"What?"

"You're supposed to be waiting with the Third Child! Come with me."

"Wait, you've got the wrong person-"

"Don't even give me that, First," Ritsuko spat, dragging the girl back towards the room. "Look, I don't have time for this, just go back and wait with the Third!" Rits pushed the girl in the direction of the room, then turned and stalked off. The girl shrugged her shoulders and left. She vacated the hall just in time to miss Shinji, who poked his head out the doorway.

Ritsuko had just turned and walked back to her room, when in the distance she saw something that raised her blood pressure dangerously. "What the hell!" she yelled. In the distance, a very Rei-like girl jumped, then turned her head, blue eyebrows furrowed in anger. "Dammit First, I just took you to your room, how did you even get here so quickly?" She stomped over to the girl, taking the girl's arm and dragging her down the hall.

"What are you doing, you hag?" the albino-who-looked-like-Rei spat. Fortunately, Ritsuko was too furious to properly hear that remark. She pulled open the door and flung the girl into the room and into Shinji's arms, then slammed the door with a crash.

"What're you doing?" Shinji hissed. "Where have you been?"

"Saving your life." She smiled. He blinked in confusion and backed up.

"Who are you?" he whispered.

"Why Shinji, that hurts," she pouted, pushing him against the wall gently, using Rei's face to the fullest, giving him a look that made his heart skip a beat. He shook his head furiously.

"You can't fool me," he said. "You're not her."

"Maybe not, but I _have_ saved you." She placed a finger on the wall and traced a square. The square suddenly came to life, making him jump back. It acted like a view-screen, and it showed a scene he remembered from a few days ago. On the screen, Asuka was handing Shinji and Rei a couple of soft drinks. The three sat around drinking and talking for a few minutes, then Asuka left. The screen fuzzed, then changed. It showed Asuka sprawled in a bathroom, dead to the world.

"Umm-" He began, but Rei 2.0 put a finger on his lips, silencing him.

"She tried to drug you, but I switched the drinks." He stared at her agape and she beamed at him. "Your welcome!" She chirped.

"Yeah, th-thanks..."

"Shut up," she snapped, the happiness gone.

"So, who are you?"

"I'm HARSH Rei," she said, as if that explained everything. He looked at her blankly. "I'm REIGI!" she snapped.

"Oh." He still didn't understand, but he was afraid to ask anything more.

"Look," she said sweetly, "I'm going to be asking you to do me a 'favor' for this, so be ready."

"F-Favor?"

"Don't worry, it's nothing bad!" She winked, then left. He stood staring at the door for a minute or so. Soon, Rei appeared in the doorway. She blinked at him.

"Is something wrong?"

He glanced quickly back towards the wall, but Rei 2.0's 'monitor' had disappeared.

"I honestly don't know."

Rei narrowed her eyes for a moment, scrutinizing the section of the wall Shinji had been looking at, then gave the Rei equivalent of a shrug. He was telling the truth, she knew that much, even if he wasn't explaining everything. She would find out in due time, whether by him telling her, or by her own detective work.

The door slammed open, and Ritsuko looked into the room.

"Well, thank goodness for small favors, you're both here. Come with me, you two." They followed. Ritsuko led them into a room. Shinji immediately noticed something amiss.

"Umm," he raised a finger, "there's only one pod..."

"Congratulations, Mister Obvious," Ritsuko sniped. "For this harmonics test you will both be in the same pod. Let's begin."

The two Children meandered.

"Aah, you get in first," Shinji mumbled.

"No," Rei murmured, her face pink, "you should be first."

"No, you-"

"For cripe's sake," Ritsuko yelled, "just get in the damned pod!"

Over the next two days, the REIGI had to save Shinji's life fifteen more times, and 'collected' on his debt a total of six times.

* * *

(Two Days Later, Tokyo-3, 2-A Classroom)

Shinji sat stunned, on his butt on the floor, an upside-down half-open bento box in front of him on the floor. He stared helpless as a familiar-looking blue-haired girl calmly picked up the box, fastidiously cleaning up the spilled rice and vegetables. She walked over and dumped the entire lunch into a wastebasket near the teacher's desk.

She returned to Shinji's side and held out a hand. He hesitantly reached out and took it, and she pulled him to his feet. He ended up pressed against her, as she had used more force than necessary to pull him up.

"Aah-" Her arms were around his waist and she had just rested her head against his chest. She stayed that way for a few moments as he sweated.

"You don't have to thank me," she said coyly, turning and walking away. "I'll just add it to your tab."

He closed his mouth, staring blankly at the doorway through which she had disappeared.

A minute and a half later, Rei peeked her head into the classroom, catching sight of him. "There you are," she said, stepping into the classroom and looking at him quizzically. "Where is our lunch? You told me you had a special Bento you wanted me to try..."

"Aah..." he cleared his throat. "I changed my mind, let's just have the school lunch. Today's vegetable soup anyway, so you can have my bowl, and that should be enough."

"If I have two bowls of soup, what will you have?" She eyes him suspiciously.

"They always serve some kind of sandwich, I'll just have both of those. It'll probably be meat anyway..."

He took her hand and pulled her out of the room. She resisted for only a moment, glancing at him warily.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"You've been behaving strangely."

He smiled at her, saying nothing. True to form, it took about seven seconds for his smile to melt away her insecurities. That wouldn't work forever, though.

* * *

(The Next Day)

Asuka's Plot was a simple one.

Knock off the blue-haired cretin who had stolen her future trophy boyfriend. Really, how hard could it be? Even if she had been trained just as much as Asuka, she wasn't on the look-out for a possible assassination attempt, so she would be susceptible to the element of surprise.

At least that was how it was supposed to have worked. She had been foiled in her plan for the past few days now, and she couldn't explain it. First she had followed them, waited for Rei to split up, and then had somehow lost the girl. Then she had tried slipping her a drugged soft-drink while they had been in the break-room between harmonics tests. That time she had somehow mixed up the drinks and had drugged herself, though she didn't know how that had happened. After that, it was one failure after another. Then there was the Bento Incident. She had no idea how that one had gone wrong. It was almost like there was someone protecting Rei, though she knew that wasn't possible. She hadn't told her plan to anyone.

Well, today's plan was fool-proof. She was entrenched in a sniper's position, waiting for the two blockheads to pass her as they walked to school, hand in hand. It was enough to make her seethe with anger as she waited for her opportunity.

_Almost, almost..._ Her finger tightened on the trigger of her long-range tranquilizer dart rifle. _First the girl, and then him._ Pale blue hair filled her scope, and she moved the cross-hairs till they rested on the white skin of her target's neck. She was just about to pull the trigger when something stung her in the neck. Cursing fluently in several German dialects, she reached up to slap the bee away and something plastic fell into her hand.

It was a small dart.

The world went fuzzy and she slumped over her gun.

* * *

Hikari's Haunt was one of perfect order.

She kept her sisters in line, the apartment immaculate, and she did so with an iron fist. After all, if the home front got out of order, it would be that much harder to focus on her class. The huffing and puffing of her sister out of breath and running towards her made Hikari turn warily.

"Sis! Sis, Nozomi got her head stuck in the refrigerator!"

Now, to anyone else, such an absurd statement would have been greeted with a laugh. Hikari chose a different route. "Again?" she snarled, breaking from her precious routine to go see to her sister.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Class 2-A...

The classroom was a-hum with quiet conversations, some of them nervous. Hikari was late. She was never late. Rumors flew as students wondered what would keep someone so straight-laced away from her Life's Work. It started with mundane things, like one of her sisters being sick, then went out of control. By the time the door slid aside, Hikari had undoubtedly been abducted by aliens and was currently on her way to Mars. Every eye was on the door, and on Hikari.

Except Hikari didn't have ash-gray hair. And she definitely wasn't a boy.

"Hi!" The boy beamed at the class. There was no way anyone could mess up his name now, so he could make a proper introduction, for once. "I'm-"

"Ooh! Ooh!" A girl in the back of the class pointed excitedly. "I know you! My dad told me there was a new pilot! Your name is-"

"Oh Goddammit!" Kaworu shrilled. Soon he was surrounded by a dozen excited girls, each of them yelling questions at the top of their lungs, each of them getting his name wrong in some subtle way.

* * *

Asuka's Plot

Grumbling and sniping to herself as she tried to shake off her wooziness, Asuka stealthily followed Rei as she went into the girl's restroom. She had awoken with a raging headache and no answers as to who had darted her and interrupted her plan. Well, that's why all good operations directors had a Plan B.

She finished wetting the small white rag with chloroform, and pushed the door to the girl's restroom open. A line of stalls greeted her. She lightly touched the first one. It swung open. The second was unused as well. She continued down the line, excitement building within her.

_Heeere kitty kitty kitty..._

Her hand touched a door that clicked softly. It was locked. She heard noises within, then a flush. Through the crack in the door she saw Rei stand and approach the door.

_That's right, come to mama..._

A rag suddenly slipped around her face and over her nose. She struggled feebly, but couldn't get free. As she slumped to the floor, she caught sight of a flash of blue hair and a pale smiling face. How had Rei gotten out of the stall and around behind her?

She found herself thrown over her captor's shoulder, and just as they turned the corner to exit the bathroom, she saw Rei exit the stall she had been using.

_Wait. There's another Wondergirl?_

That was her last thought before she passed out.

* * *

Hikari's Haunt

Hikari stomped off towards the bathroom to continue her morning routine. She was already atrociously late, there was no way she was going to be able to shrug this off. She had never been late a day in her life. This would be the first time she ever got to school as late as thirty minutes before the bell rang. She washed her face in a rush, threw her clothes on, and was almost out the door when Kodama ran into her, so out of breath her face was red.

"Hikari, it's horrible!" the girl wailed, "It's Nozomi, she's-"

"Let me guess," Hikari snarled, "she's slammed her hair in the bathroom door and now it's locked!"

"No, she- Wait, how'd you know?"

"What? I was just joking, don't tell me that's what she really did...!"

* * *

Class 2-A

Kaworu had just fought his way through the mob of students in time to see Shinji and Rei walk into the classroom. After weeks of being absent, and acing the past two tests, the two were fast becoming the Class Eclectics, and now had their own cult following.

"Sempai, let me take your book bag," an awe-struck boy took Shinji's bag.

"Thanks. Umm-" he looked helplessly back towards Rei, where a black-haired girl was taking Rei's books, "I've already told you, we're in the same class, you don't have to call me that..."

At that moment Kaworu caught sight of Rei.

"Oh thank goodness!" He nearly fell at her feet in relief. "Tell them! Tell them my what my name really is...!"

"What are you talking about, Kazawari?" Rei's eyes glinted. Kaworu howled in frustration.

* * *

Hikari's Haunt

Hikari had her book bag in her hand, her purse over a shoulder, and a license to kill, if it would get her out of the house and to her Class 2-A. Kodama flew around the corner and Hikari caught her in a headlock.

"What's that, Lassie?" Hikari asked, as her sister gasped for air, "Nozomi's fallen in the well? Well, you know what, Lassie?" Kodama shook her head, a quick jerking motion. "Get her out of the well yourself!"

Hikari slammed the door on her sisters and their problems and booked it to school. She arrived in time to see the uproar, and Shinji and Rei.

"You!" She advanced on Shinji and his delinquent girlfriend. "And you! Her finger began to shake as she pointed at Rei. "I don't care if you _have_ managed to ace the past two tests, and did the homework, but what about all the quizzes? Those count for a quarter of your grade, you know-"

"We've taken the quizzes," Rei said. "The Professor let us take them after school hours two days ago."

"But... you... it-" Hikari looked around for something to lash out at. "You!" she pointed an angry finger. "You're the new student, Kawaru, right?" Kaworu fell into her arms, sobbing with relief.

"You got my name right! I love you!" he said, kissing her over and over, "I love you!" Every time he kissed her, she turned a darker shade of red.

"_That's_ not going to end well," Touji muttered to Shinji, who nodded agreement. The only thing that prevented Kaworu's immediate beheading was an old voice.

"What's going on here?" The sound of the Professor's voice made all the blood drain from Hikari's face, and there was a lot there. She immediately fainted dead away in Kaworu's arms. In the distance, Tokyo-3's alert siren began its forlorn wail.

* * *

Hikari awoke to an alien world, a place that violated her soul with its sickening smell that seemed to permeate her body, which was covered in a slippery sticking wet thing that felt like it was raping her in holes she didn't know she had.

"Oh, you awake back there, darling?"

It was the gray-haired boy, the 'Kaworu', the new student. Even though he was jammed up against her in a way that was beyond embarrassing, she was so scared she couldn't unwrap her arms from around his waist. From what she could see peeking around his head, two strange-looking robot things were fighting two equally strange, vaguely humanoid monsters.

"I... I see," a chuckle stuck in her throat like a bite you knew was too big, yet you swallowed anyway, "so... so this is some kind of weird movie, but... but why are we like this...?"

"What?" Kaworu looked back at her in surprise. "No, this isn't a movie, it's tag-team wrestling." He frowned momentarily. "At least that's what one of the Reis said." On the screen, an orange robot had thrown a monster down to the ground and was jumping all over it like a trampoline.

"Forget I asked," she mumbled, leaning her head back against the seat. The smell that seemed to be everywhere was making her faintly nauseated.

"Are you okay?" He turned around, searching her face in earnest. She forced herself to keep her eyes open and look at him, even though that meant admitting to her current reality. In the distance she heard a faint scream and a trail of German curses.

"How can you be so calm and happy?" she resisted the urge to cough, fearing she might puke all over him. "Back... Back in the classroom..." The dizzying change between the safeness of the classroom and her current circumstances made her head spin, but she pushed past that. "Back there you seemed like you were about to go crazy, but now you're completely fine-"

"Because of you, sweetness," he said, giving her a look of such compassion and love that for a moment her heart melted. She could feel her face heating up as he beamed at her happily. On the screen, a red robot was being dragged by one foot across the pavement, its fingers digging furrows through the street as it struggled. "For the love of Gott!" a redheaded girl screamed, her face filling a small box in the corner of the screen, "someone get this bastard off me!" In that moment it all clicked in Hikari's mind, and she snapped.

"What the hell is going on here?" she screamed, making Kaworu wince. Students, _her_ students, were fighting for their lives. Students she had a responsibility to protect. As it turns out, a Class Rep, deep down inside, has the same instincts for protection that a mother has. White light flared from Unit-01's eyes, and the Eva charged forward, delivering a vicious straight jab to the Angel that had hold of Unit-02's foot. Unfortunately, to reach the Angel, Hikari had to step on Unit-02.

"_-ouch!_ Watch it, you gray-haired piece of-" Asuka's shrill cry was cut off when Hikari grabbed the Angel and pulled it towards her, driving her knee into its 'midsection' and letting it fall brokenly onto the ground, and Unit-02. "_Gott,_ my back-! Are you trying to save me or kill me-" Hikari picked her foot up off Asuka's head. "Jeez, about time," Asuka huffed, "Now could you please-AACH!"

Hikari had only lifted her foot so she could use it to repeatedly stomp the Angel into the ground, or rather, further into Asuka's back. The girl reached up a shaking hand and drove a prog knife through Unit-01's foot, and coincidentally, the Angel's core. Unit-01 roared as the Angel exploded up its leg in a shower of purple gore.

Asuka dragged herself to a dazed sitting position in time to see Rei's Eva doing the Macarena with the other Angel's head. She was about to ask where the rest of the Angel was, but the towering purple cross in the distance was a good clue.

"Well," Maya chirped, "just another fight like usual, right Sempai?"

"Shut up, Maya," Ritsuko snapped sulkily.

* * *

Shinji sighed with relief, looking down at his shaking hand. His nerves were slowly returning to normal, and the shower to wash off the LCL always helped. He would never get used to Rei's 'Eva personality' which was so completely different from what he knew of her. Whenever she synchronized with Unit-00, she turned into a completely different person.

Still, it was a good thing. Her embarrassment over her uncontrollable personality-change was probably the only thing keeping her from digging deeper into the problems he found himself mired in. He stepped tiredly into the men's locker room, and walked towards his locker. He had actually been relieved when the alert siren had begun to wail, because Rei had been getting even more suspicious than she usually was.

He knew she would eventually find out, but all he could do was hope that between now and that time, he came up with some plausible story that she would accept. He opened his locker and found himself pushed back a few feet into the wall.

"Time to pay the piper again, Shinji!"

She looked like Rei, she felt like Rei, she even smelled like Rei. He couldn't even fight back as she stripped him and pushed him to the floor. She had already saved his life who knew how many times, even if he didn't want to believe it. Well, the upshot of it was that she didn't waste time. It would be over relatively quickly, then he could...

He happened to cast his eyes upwards, and he was greeted by a pale smile. No, it was a frown, because he was looking at her upside down. She crossed her arms, her blue eyebrows ticking downwards.

"Perhaps you'd like to explain yourself."

The Rei lying on top of him covered her grin with a hand.

"-oopsie! And to think I had only calculated a twelve percent possibility of us getting caught..." Her face took on a thoughtful expression. "Of course, this _is_ the seventh time, so the combined probability would be... carry the two..." she scrunched her blue eyebrows together in thought, "eighty-four percent!" She smiled.

"Umm, I think you did the math wrong, actually," Shinji began. Above them, Rei was shaking with fury.

* * *

Tokyo-3, City Center, Governmental Offices.

The spacious suite was dominated by a giant oak table, around which five people sat. One of them was Fuyutski, and three of them were Tokyo-3 Council members. They sat on both sides of the table, facing each other. The aging sub-commander ran a hand down his face. He was wearing a pair of short white gloves that he had stolen from Gendo's room, but no one had commented on his fashion statement.

"I still don't see how this is okay with you," he said hesitantly.

"Oh no," one of the council members assured him, "actually this is even better than before! We actually have someone to look to for advice, as opposed to a simple terminal hooked into the MAGI." He glanced towards the head of the table apologetically. "-err, I mean REIGI," he corrected himself. "No offense intended."

"None taken," Rei 2.0 replied imperiously.

"So you're HARSH Rei," Fuyutski repeated, as if to reassure himself.

"Obviously," Rei sniffed in disdain. "It takes an iron fist to rule a city of this size."

"-and you're a free-form charged-LCL simulacrum-"

"Yes!" Rei snapped testily. "Anything else?"

The three council members looked at her reverently, while Fuyutski tried not to visibly sweat. He was hoping to get a private conference with the REIGI simulacrum, as soon as he could get the council members to leave. He was sure the REIGI could help him determine just what was wrong with his hand. He had to get answers, no matter how much Rei 2.0 made his skin crawl.

The fact that LCL could be made variably dense enough to perfectly simulate a person was freaky enough, let alone the fact that she'd somehow managed to fit a mobile holographic emitter into something the size of a fourteen year old girl. He had no idea how the REIGI had gotten charged LCL outside of an entry plug, but he knew better than anyone how most of an Eva's systems were meant to suppress and control the monster's power, rather than protect and enhance it. Theoretically, once it was charged, LCL could become a template for whatever life imprinted itself on it.

"Well, if you're here, does that mean that somewhere in this city there's a SWEET Rei?"

"Yes..."

Her reply was more hesitant, though he knew that was probably calculated, since she was essentially a living supercomputer.

"-and a CRAZY Rei?"

There was a longer pause this time.

"Maaaybe..."


	7. Rei's Sweet Sweet Revenge

She was so angry that it felt like he had his hand caught in a vice grip as she dragged him away.

"Rei, let me explain-"

"Shut it."

He smiled awkwardly at several startled techs as Rei continued dragging him down the hall.

"But I really can-"

"You'll just screw anything with blue hair and red eyes won't you?"

"No! That's-" They had entered the hospital ward, and he still didn't know where she was taking him.

"What's she got that I don't have?" This time there was a distinct tremble in her voice. He opened his mouth. "No, don't answer that," she snapped. Stopping at a seemingly random room, she flung aside a door, startling the two nurses inside who were having a coffee break.

"Get out," Rei hissed. The room was empty besides the two women, and they quickly vacated the area. Slamming the door shut, she flung Shinji onto the bed. This no longer surprised him, since by now he was very used to having one Rei or another throw him down and have her way with him. He was close to deciding that such an act was hard-coded into her genes on some level.

Soon after, they were lying together and breathing hard, him with an arm over her, she with her head turned away. Fifteen minutes went by without a word. He opened his mouth to properly explain what had happened, then closed it. After several more false starts, he finally spoke.

"She's already saved us from Asuka more times than I can remember. I can count five at least, and I don't know how often she's saved you, but-"

"I know that," Rei mumbled. "You think I didn't know that? Still, you could have explained the 'deal' she made with you."

"I'm sorry."

She shifted in his arms, lifting a hand to wipe her face. "You're going to have to convince me of that," she said.

"I will," he said, reaching up to her cheek, "and I'm sorry I made you cry."

"I wasn't crying," she replied testily, batting away his hand. She had moved her body to cover the wet spot on the white sheets of the hospital bed, and her face was now free of evidence.

"You weren't crying at all?" he asked, moving his lips to the crook of her neck and subtly shifting her body to the side.

"No, I wasn't," she hissed, bracing herself so she wouldn't budge. "I don't cry, or laugh. You know that. You should be thinking about how to convince me that you're sorry-" she gasped when he nuzzled lower, and she put her arms around him, "-I believe a week of you cooking dinner will do," her voice began to quaver as Shinji wandered, and she tightened her arms around his back, "...are you listening to me? A week of dinner, and perhaps a movie or two at the new theater that just opened up-" She suddenly squeaked and put her hands over her mouth to muffle the embarrassing noise. Unfortunately that meant she had to release him, which freed him up to do what he wanted. After that, her hands weren't enough to muffle her screaming, so she stopped trying.

She came to herself some time later, startled at the loss of consciousness. He was lying at her side, his arms protectively around her. She reached up a hand to her face and it came away dripping with her tears.

"See?" he said, hugging her tighter, "You _do_ cry. And laugh..."

"It's just allergies," she insisted as she rubbed her eyes, trying in vain to dry them. "What did you just do to me?"

"Oh," he looked embarrassed, "that... it was something I learned from one of those dirty magazines I found inside your pillow."

"I see." She feared her blush was visible even though her body was still flushed from exertion. "So you found those."

"Yeah-"

"Do it again."

He looked at her in surprise.

"But... at least let me rest-"

"Again!"

* * *

Ritsuko's office was cramped despite its fair size, as three office chairs had been brought in from an unused conference room.

"Alright, you all know why I've called you here," Ritsuko spoke grimly. "Asuka."

She faced the redhead, who nodded firmly, her lips twitching into a smile. She knew that the Doctor rarely if ever referred to any Pilot by his or her name, and that this signified a giving of trust. Besides, anything that would further her aim of ridding herself of the troublesome First Child was fine by her.

"Makoto." Ritsuko turned to face the surly technician. Hyuga nodded. He would never have believed that Shinji Ikari, a fourteen year old boy, would 'get some' before him. He almost hadn't believed Ritsuko when she had told him, but now he had no further compunctions.

"Maya." Ritsuko favored her long-time pupil with a rare smile. Maya nodded, more hesitantly than the others. Her Sempai was once again doing something that made her uneasy. This time, however, she feared she might have to do something about it. Still, whatever her choice, she needed to know what was going on.

"Our next meeting will be somewhere a little more... discreet... than my office."

Ritsuko reached into her pocket and pulled out a small bundle of what turned out to be arm-bands with cloth badges sewn onto them. She laid them out on the desk, one in front of each person. The badges on the armbands were circular, and had a picture of a small white faceless figure with blue hair. The badge had a border of yellow with a line crossing through the blue-haired figure. Two words were printed on the badge, one above the picture and one below.

"Welcome to Ritsuko's Rangers."

* * *

Two blue-haired girls walked down a nameless hallway deep inside the Geofront. One of them wore a pink frilly dress that reached to her ankles.

"We're going to have to tell them, you know. It's not something we can keep secret."

The other one was dressed in an all-black outfit, and she wore black lipstick.

"I know," she snapped. "Just not yet. The less they know, the better. You slept with 'that guy' six times. That means we can have two more REIGI installations, but it's not enough!"

"Well, for now it'll have to be, unless you want me to-"

The two paused their conversation as two female technicians approached from the opposite end of the hallway. The two women tried to stare at the two albinos while still being discrete. After they passed, one whispered to another, her eyes still on the two girls. The one dressed in black casually raised a hand, flipping her off.

"Anyway," the one in pink continued, when the two women were out of earshot, "three REIGI installations will be enough for the initial-" She fell silent when yet another technician appeared around the corner of the hallway. Maya walked up to them, glancing behind her as if she were being followed. The Rei in pink smiled warmly, while the one in black crossed her arms and frowned.

"Err..." Maya looked frazzled, "you're REIGI, right?"

"What gave you that bright idea?" HARSH Rei bit out.

"We are," SWEET Rei answered helpfully, shooting her clone a warning look.

"Listen," Maya said in a worried undertone, "there's something I need to tell you about. Is there somewhere we can talk in private?"

"Not while you're in the Geofront," HARSH Rei answered sarcastically. Maya looked forlorn.

"Don't be difficult," SEET Rei hissed to her sister. "We can erase the bugging devices." She smiled at Maya. "Step into our 'office' please." She gestured towards the nearest door. Maya hesitantly reached for the red tell-tale, which showed the door to be locked. SWEET Rei blinked, and it turned green. Maya jumped a little as the door slid open. The lights automatically came on, revealing an empty office that had yet to be furnished. The two LCL-forms followed Maya into the room, and the door slid shut behind them.

* * *

The spacious hall Tokyo-3's Ruling Council had provided for HARSH Rei was crowded with people from almost all walks of life. Lawyers, doctors, accountants, the elite, politicians, everyone wanted a conversation with the irrepressible REIGI simulacrum, and he had the feeling that no matter how computer-like she was, she had an ego to match the power she wielded. It made him wonder if Gendo had ever been to this room, because he suspected that even the icy Commander would be jealous of the power the small girl held.

What was more galling was that there wasn't just one. He hadn't gotten a firm count of how many HARSH Rei simulacrums there were talking with various people, and he suspected there was a hard limit somewhere, probably based on the amount and complexity of the queries being put to her, but that left one thing staring him in the face: whatever the limits of her power to duplicate were, she hadn't deigned to spare the single clone he needed to answer his questions.

_Just one, that's all I ask,_ he thought, irritation building within him. _Surely it's not too much to ask for one measly simulacrum. Just for a few minutes._ He turned and glared at the nearest clone, replete in what would have to have been, for a person, a specially tailored black suit. He knew of no clothes manufacturer that made such business suits for fourteen year old females. _Fine. I can wait._

He waited.

He snorted awake, vaguely remembering that at some point he had drifted over to a wall, leaned back against it, and begun to doze lightly. But what had awoken him? Oh. There was a Rei simulacrum not a dozen meters away and walking in his direction. As she approached she didn't even slow down. She reached up and snapped her fingers in front of his face a couple of times.

"You awake?" she asked in a bored obviously-rhetorical voice. "Good. Follow." Then she was past him.

Too stunned to make any kind of retort, he followed wordlessly. By the time he had gotten his wits and his voice back together, she had again started speaking.

"Listen closely, I don't have the time or the desire to answer your questions now. Meet me at this time, at this location. Then you might get your answer." She passed him a small slip of paper that had been folded in half. He stared at it dumbly, and then his irritation came back in full force and, for a moment, got the better of him.

"What if I just follow you around until you answer me?" He snapped. She stopped walking, and he nearly ran into her.

"That would be a very boring, very fruitless endeavor, and it would annoy me." She turned her head, favoring him with a smile that conveyed exactly the opposite message of what a smile normally conveyed. "You don't want to do that."

"Aah..." He gathered his emotions back to where an adult usually carried them, then spoke again. "Why don't you have the time to answer me now?"

Her smile turned patronizing. "Because I have limited processing power, and your problem will take a lot of it," she admitted, and he straightened his back, feeling at least a token satisfaction in how she had admitted to a personal limit. It wasn't to last. "And because your 'problem' is of minor immediate importance." She glanced at his hand and he felt a chill. "Don't get me wrong," she said, and it was the first time in the conversation when he detected any sort of respect in her tone, "your problem is the most important one Tokyo-3 faces, but it's not _immediately_ important." And with that, she turned and walked off.

_In other words,_ he thought gloomily, _'Get in line.'_

He opened the piece of paper, reading its contents. He would get his meeting shortly after midnight.

* * *

Maya sighed wearily, stepping into the one break-room in the Geofront that had real honest-to-God coffee, not the powdered stuff. Her eyes flitted to the other entrance to the room. Kaji had also just stepped into the room and sighed. Maya walked over to the machine and pushed the button for straight black, as strong as the machine could make it. A cup deposited itself and began filling with a deep blackness that seemed to swallow even light. Beside her Kaji chuckled.

"You like your coffee just how I like mine," he said airily, pushing the button she had just pushed. She took her cup just before another dropped where hers had been, also filling with blackness. She sipped, letting the liquid scour her worries away, and leaned back against the wall in relief. Kaji took his cup, sipped, and also leaned back in relief.

"Tough day?" Kaji asked.

"Yeah." She grinned at him knowingly. He probably had no idea what it felt like being a double agent. She wondered what he would think if she told him how she had betrayed Ritsuko.

"Why do I get the feeling you and I are similar?" Kaji asked, his womanizer beams on full. Unintentionally, of course.

"Haha," Maya sipped her deathly strong coffee, letting it swallow her laugh. "You wouldn't say that if you knew what I've been through."

Kaji frowned for a moment. For his womanizer beams to be reflected like that...

No. There was no way that was true. He sipped his coffee and eyed Maya warily.

* * *

Being Class Rep was a tough job. It wasn't something you just decided to do for the fun of it. Even those who wish to be one knew they would get little return for such hard work, and it would come much later, as a single line on a resume, only one of many things that, together, might get one a good job.

"Here's the homework, Hikari," Kaworu handed her a stack of papers.

"Huh," she eyed the papers, "this is a lot, is it all yours- Hey! This is everyone's homework!"

"Your welcome!" He smiled and returned to his seat. Hikari stomped over and laid the papers on the teacher's desk, then going back to her own seat. Gathering the papers was supposed to be her job. Well, it didn't matter. The insufferable guy would get tired of helping her soon, once he saw just how much work...

"Hey!" She approached the teacher's desk, where the old man and Kaworu were beginning to grade the papers. "What's going on here?" she hissed.

"Ah, Miss Horaki," the old man's voice was kind as usual, "we'll get these done in no time with the three of us grading them."

Hikari was so busy grinding her teeth as she graded her papers that the lunch bell caught her by surprise. She looked around, but Kaworu was nowhere to be found.

_Thank goodness. Now, I'll just get my lunch and have a relaxing-_

She was nearly pulled off her feet when someone threaded their arm through hers and pulled her towards the door.

"Wait," she snapped, "my lunch-"

"Already got it!" Kaworu beamed at her, and she was so furious she was seeing red. "What... what..." She was so angry she was shaking. Kaworu pulled her close. "What's this? If you're cold, why didn't you say so!" He pulled her closer to him and she felt her face heat up. Half of her was plotting his imminent demise while the other half melted in his arms.

* * *

Geofront Hospital Ward number three was empty save for the minimal staff on duty necessary for the current level of patients, which was one. Or soon would be one, anyway. Maya sat at a workstation with Hyuga at her side.

"Okay, we're all ready here," Ritsuko said, to herself more than anyone. "Remember," she told Asuka, who stood by her side, holding a clipboard, "if anyone asks, I'm training you as my assistant- oh stop giggling, Maya!"

Everyone fell silent when Rei walked into the hospital ward. "I am ready for my check-up," she stated.

"Good," Ritsuko purred. "Good. Just come over here and lie down."

Ritsuko gave the girl a shot, like she usually did, except this one had a sedative in it. Slowly the girl's eyes shut.

"Alright people, let's start. We don't have much time."

Ritsuko's Rangers clustered around their prey. They began their work, putting sensors and monitors on the girl as if she were undergoing a very intensive checkup, as was usual for the girl once every two months.

"Alright!" Ritsuko cracked her knuckles and approached the helpless girl. "People, this is what we've waited for. Now-"

"Ma'am!" Makoto's voice was tense as he stared at his monitor in horror. "L-Look at this!"

Ritsuko frowned in annoyance, striding over to the man's terminal. On it was a diagram of the girl, with statistics and arrows pointing to various body parts. Ritsuko's eyes widened.

"Ma'am," Makoto murmured, "how can she be pregnant?"

"She can't be," Ritsuko spat. "It's impossible! Not even if-" Oh no. But she had been sure she had only turned on the girl's periods, not her ovaries. "No matter." She shook herself. "Extract the embryo, then we'll continue our operation." Ritsuko reached over the man's shoulder to squelch the warning and erase the evidence of what had happened.

"Extract the what?" Fuyutski's deep voice made her jump. She pulled her hands back. Fuyutski checked his piece of paper again. This was the time and place, but Rei 2.0 was nowhere to be found. Then he glanced at Ritsuko's monitor, and understood. Somehow HARSH Rei had known what was going on, and had gotten him involved.

"Sub-Commander," Ritsuko observed icily. It didn't matter. The old fart probably wouldn't know how to read the screen anyway, and he wouldn't even know what she was doing. She reached forward again and continued deleting.

"Hmm, so she's pregnant," Fuyutski observed drily. Ritsuko's hands froze. "You know," he continued, his voice sounding absolutely bored, "the Commander would be extremely surprised at something like this. But I'm sure," he continued wearily, "that you were acting on his orders when you got her pregnant."

"I didn't get her pregnant, you ninny!" Rits yelled.

"No," Fuyutski sighed. "That would probably be Shinji." He said it in such a laconic way that Ritsuko blinked stupidly for a moment. "My my," Fuyutski continued, "imagine what an enraged Eva could do to a hospital complex such as this." The old man looked around admiringly at the gleaming white walls and the harsh white lights. Then he looked back towards Ritsuko's pale face. "If he knew his girlfriend and his child were under your knife, that is." Fuyutski smiled at her, then glanced back towards the screen. His eyes widened as he looked closer. "Hmm..." His smile reached his eyes, crinkling them. "Twins, is it?"

* * *

Hikari tried in vain to extract her hand from Kaworu's. "Look," she huffed, "I'll let you be my boyfriend, okay? But-" She tried to ignore how he was holding her hand to his heart, his eyes shimmering, "look, you have to keep it a secret!" The couple stood on the roof of school, where Hikari had hoped to get a few moments for herself.

"Your secret," he kissed her hand gently, "is safe with me, my love!" He smiled and winked. She snatched her hand away, unconsciously wiping it against her blouse, her face red.

"A secret, okay?" she mumbled. "Just remember."

"Your wish is my command!" he put his hands on her shoulders and stared at her lovingly" A keening wail rose in volume. "Ah, listen!" Kaworu drew her close. "Even the city is celebrating our love!"

"That's the alert siren, you dork," she mumbled into his shirt.

Soon all the pilots were gathered in the Eva cages.

"An Angel has been found," Misato reported. "And for once, we're going to go attack it before it comes to us!" She beamed happily. The pilots stared back. "Spoilsports," she groused. "Okay, Units -01 and -02 will go get the Angel, Unit-00 will stay and guard the city."

"City's doomed," Asuka said snidely, causing Maya to snort coffee out of her nose. The poor tech flailed for a napkin. After that, the appropriate Evas were on their way to the volcano, and Asuka's Eva was soon dangling over the lava.

"-did I mention I hate this suit?" Asuka complained, as her suited Eva submerged into the lava. The white bulbous suit was the only thing protecting her Eva from the harsh temperature and pressure to come.

"Only every other minute since we got here!" Misato replied cheerily.

"Well, at least no one important is here to see me like this. Like Kaji I mean!" she added quickly. For some reason, an image of Shinji had appeared in her mind. Heaven forbid either men saw her in her plug suit as it was, all blown up like a beach ball. At least Hikari had her back. She rechecked her prog knife in its sheath, and tightened her grip on the electromagnetic cage that was supposed to capture the Angel, which was supposedly still in its embryonic form.

She passed through the depths of the lava as Misato counted down how deep she was.

"Wait, we're getting some movement... I think..."

Then things went bad. Something heavy slammed into her, and first she lost her electromagnetic cage, then she lost her prog-knife. Then the Angel bit through her cables, and suddenly she was falling. Above her, the Angel writhed crazily, its mouth still hooked onto the cable, and it began to break up.

_Great._ Everything felt surreal. _The Angel's dead somehow, and so am I..._

Then she felt a slippery male presence enter her synchronization. "-aach! Get away from me, you pervert...!" She tried to twist away from the presence, but that didn't help. Somehow she knew it was Kaworu, and his presence was all around her. _Listen,_ it said, _you'll just have to trust me._ "I'd rather die!" she spat, fighting against the sick vulnerability she felt as the presence had her in its grip. The view-port of her Eva's diving suit cracked alarmingly, and her eyes widened. _Trust me! Turn loose on your connection..._ "F-Fine!" she replied, fighting against the helplessness she felt as the presence wound its way around her body. _Good. Now hold on._

He reached deeper, making her shiver, and she closed her eyes in disgust. "I changed my mind!" she hissed, "S-Stop it..." Her Eva had ceased its downward motion, and now it was rising. "What... what the-" Now she saw what he was doing. It was like child's play, yet she had never considered it. "Get out..." She struggled, and he withdrew slowly, "I can do it! Get out!" He was gone now, and the whole plug was glowing. She didn't doubt that her entire Unit-02 was glowing.

She came up out of the lava and immediately began ripping off the bulky pieces of her diving suit. "Good riddance!" she dropped them one by one into the volcano.

"Nooo!" Misato wailed, "The diving suit! Millions of yen...!"

"See you back at the base, Misato!" Asuka called cheerily, deflating her plug suit as she flew her Eva over the lip of the volcano and towards Tokyo-3, many miles away.

She pushed herself faster and faster, and began to laugh. It was the first time she had felt so free.

It wasn't to last, of course, for soon the city came into view, as did Unit-00. The Eva was crouched at the edge of the city, and it was messing with a big four-legged spider-thing that was beginning to look very annoyed. Every time the spider would settle itself, Rei would poke it, making it jump a few dozen meters into the air. Asuka guessed that this had been going on for some time. With a thought, she tuned into the comm network.

"-can I keep it?" Rei crooned, "just as a pet? I'll feed it myself, I swear I will! Please?"

"Don't pay attention to her, Doctor Akagi!" Shinji was trying to shout over Rei's voice, "She's just being Eva-Rei, she doesn't mean it-"

"Don't dis Eva-Rei!" the albino screamed. The comm box display finally settled, and she could see Rei latched onto Shinji's back, tickling him madly. He was desperately and unsuccessfully trying to get away, and he was laughing so hard tears were streaming down his face.

"Mind telling me what's going on?" Asuka asked Ritsuko.

"I'm getting my sweet sweet revenge!" Rei answered, giggling madly.

"I wasn't asking you, you... insane person!" Asuka snapped, drawing her pistol. She capped Matariel with a single shot, and the Angel fell to the ground, its legs splayed wildly against the surrounding buildings.

"You killed him!" Rei wailed, releasing Shinji. Unit-00 beat on the ground like a child throwing a tantrum, putting dents in the armored pavement. "Why? Why'd you kill fluffy?"

* * *

Soon after, all the Children stood facing their superiors.

"Asuka," Ritsuko glared at the girl. "I'm reprimanding you for destroying NERV equipment by throwing it into a volcano."

"Whatever," Asuka waved idly. She continued humming absentmindedly. Ritsuko's face colored when she realized that the song Asuka was humming was 'I believe I can fly.'

"I'm reprimanding you too," Ritsuko turned to Rei. "I've had to put five technicians through therapy because of you!" She looked around. "Dismissed," she snapped. The pilots left.

Shinji caught up to Rei at the entrance to the locker rooms.

"Sorry," Rei murmured without turning around. "For what happened in the Eva."

"No you're not," Shinji sighed. Rei let out an abbreviated sniffle.

"No, I really am sorry," her voice was quavering with what sounded suspiciously like suppressed laughter.

"Rei..." He stepped over behind her and turned her chin towards him. She was biting her lip and her cheeks were pink.

"I'm... sor... okay I'm not sorry," she admitted. Shinji was just opening his mouth to complain when he noticed she had gone completely still. When he looked at her face, her eyes were wide.

"What?" He looked at her, concern wiping away his irritation. She put her hands over her abdomen, her expression distant.

"I feel strange," she murmured.


	8. Slight Hormonal Imbalance

Shinji stood in front of the stove, cooking and sweating. Behind him he could feel Rei's gaze boring into him. Over the past month she had been slowly getting more tense and touchy, and he had no idea why. On top of that, Sub-Commander Fuyutski had been giving him kind smiles, and he didn't know why that was happening either.

Several minutes later he approached the table like a waiter in a five star restaurant. _I really put my all into this one, if I do say so myself..._ He sat and began to eat. Rei gingerly nibbled at her food, the tension in her face slowly draining away. The usual warm glow filled his chest when she flicked her eyes up as she usually did to compliment him.

"Thanks," she murmured. "It's good-HLORF!" She ran to the bathroom. He dropped his chop-sticks and followed.

"Rei! What's wrong-"

"Leave me alone!" she yelled back, amidst further nasty retching.

"Look, I'll make something else if you don't like what I just made-"

"No! You're trying to poison me...!" the accusation ended in a choked sob.

It took him ten minutes to convince her he wasn't trying to murder her just so he could continue making out with one of the other Reis.

The excitement was finally over, with Shinji disinfecting the place on the floor where he had cleaned up the mess, and Rei was collapsed on a powder-blue recliner, her eyes closed. On the bedside table beside it was a dish of half-eaten toast which he had managed to get her to eat, to keep up her strength. On her lap was an opened manga that she didn't appear to have the energy to read.

Shinji finished wiping the floor, then took the dirty rags over to the washing-machine area to put them with the dirty clothes. Behind him he heard a light rustling noise.

"Shinji," Rei's tired voice drifted into the foyer, "where's my measuring cup?"

"Over by where you were just sitting," he called back. "I moved it there when I cleaned up yesterday, because you're always using it, so-"

"Why did you move it?" Her yell, plus the thump of something falling, made him jump.

"Ah..." it wasn't the first time he had moved stuff, and she had never complained before. "I just thought it'd be more convenient over there-"

"It's not convenient if I don't know where it is!" she snapped, her voice muffled as she returned to her chair.

"It was right there in plain sight," he insisted, immediately shutting his mouth with a click. He cringed, knowing it was the wrong thing to say.

"Well I'm sorry!" he heard her half-yell. "Sorry I'm blind, and sorry I can't seem to get your 'superior' rearranging methods...!"

"Rei, I didn't mean..." He sighed. "I wasn't-"

"Just be quiet." The sheer resignation in her voice stopped him from commenting further. More and more it seemed like he could do nothing right, and the more he tried, the worse things got.

* * *

The cloaking darkness of the holograph room Gendo used to communicate with his SEELE 'masters' was becoming more and more claustrophobic.

"Ikari," SEELE pillar eleven commented in a gravelly voice, "your excuses are becoming more pathetic as the days pass. Perhaps you'd like to explain the report you submitted."

"Ah," Gendo cleared his throat nervously, "which part would that be?" he asked innocently.

"You report the loss of a high-pressure D-Class magma diving suit, due to..." there was a rustle of paper, as if any of the member of SEELE did not have photographic memories, "due to 'pilot error.' This is unacceptable loss, Ikari! What 'pilot error?' This was the new pilot, the girl who had been trained her whole life, correct?"

"Yes..." Gendo admitted, preparing the excuses he had thought up. The suit had been damaged anyway, and the suits were such that after being compromised, it was unsafe to simply repair them. He knew it was just the SEELE bastards being the assholes they were, but he wondered why they would push such a point that he could so easily deflect? They had to have something else, something damning.

"You transported two Evas to use in that... operation... am I right?" The question was rhetorical, and Pillar Eleven didn't bother giving him time to respond. "We have satellite evidence that one of the two F-Type transports returned without an Eva. Yet the other Eva is back at the city." The pillar waited, as if coaxing for an answer. "Do you have something you wish to add to your report?"

"I assumed it would be obvious," Gendo said slowly, as if tasting the words, "that the Eva flew back on its own."

"Obvious?" Pillar Nine shrieked. "Those abilities were locked down in the Evas you constructed! Have you modified them?"

"Of course not," Gendo cursed under his breath. He had hoped to avoid this, since he knew so little about what had happened. He was left with the tried and true fall-back, blame everything on Kaworu. "We have gone over the technical data from the Evas themselves," he explained. "Just before the... Incident... a link was initiated between Unit-01 and Unit-02. Initiated by the pilot you sent me..."

Silence. Gendo imagined the pillars looking at each other, either in confusion or in conference.

"Well," Pillar Eight sighed in resignation, "we have nothing more to discuss... so..."

"That's it?" Gendo asked in confusion, before managing to shut himself up. He had planned for a protracted battle. This was unexpected.

"Of course, Ikari," Pillar Eight continued fastidiously, "you have presented us with cogent and reasoned evidence. We have no way of pinning anything on you, so go on about your business."

_Huh._ Gendo sat back, bringing a hand to his chin in thought. _Well, I guess-_

"Psych!" Pillar Twelve shrieked. "An invasion force is already on its way!" The pillar cackled menacingly, then they all disappeared.

"Well, crap."

* * *

Shinji lingered by the washer, slowly sorting through the laundry and putting pieces of it into the washer. Such repetitive tasks took his mind off of the tattered relationship he found himself in. _Is this what they mean by the honeymoon being over?_ he thought glumly. _Where things get stale..._ He glanced up to see Rei drifting over to where he worked, her blue eyebrows twitched downward subtly as they were most of the time these days.

Her movements were as graceful as they always were, without a wasted erg of energy, the quick glance that seemed to take in everything he was doing in one short efficient moment. He smiled unconsciously. There was no way things were stale, at least not for him. Things were just... more prickly than usual.

"What are you doing?"

"Just sorting the laundry." He gestured helpfully towards the half-full basket of clothes.

"I don't want these bleached," she said, peering into the washer and pulling out one of her unmentionables.

"But they're white, so it's okay-"

"I just said I don't want them bleached, why do you have to argue?" She began snatching out pieces of clothing, then paused, putting a hand to her forehead and closing her eyes.

"Okay, I didn't know," he said placatingly, "are... are you okay?"

"My head hurts," she snapped, glancing at him in irritation. "I just want a few minutes to think. Is it too much to ask? Just an evening on my own, or something," she mumbled, turning back to to washer. He noticed her hands were shaking slightly.

"Look," he said, putting an arm around her, "I can do that, sit down and I'll get you some water-"

"Go away." She shoved, and he fell back a few paces. He opened his mouth a few times, not knowing what to say. He didn't want to set her off again.

Maybe it would be a good idea to get out, even if just for a little while. He arrowed towards his backpack, which sat in a corner, and picked it up, heading for the door.

"Shinji..." He glanced back at her. "Shinji, don't leave me...!"

The break in her voice made him drop his backpack in surprise. She stumbled over to where he stood, and he cringed back for a moment, fearing she might hit him. She fell into his arms, almost collapsing to the floor before he could catch her.

"What's happening to me?" she mumbled into his shirt. "Why am I acting like this? This isn't me, I don't normally-" Shinji's phone began to tweet. He held onto Rei with an arm, and with the other he flipped open his phone, putting it to his ear.

"Hello?"

"-ji! Shinji, is that you?" It was Misato's frantic voice. "Shinji it's terrible," the woman wailed, "there's Borg everywhere, and-" screams and crashes drowned out her voice, then the line cut off. Rei steadied herself, looking at him questioningly as he closed his phone.

"Just another day at NERV," he said tiredly. In the distance, the city's alert siren began its shrill cry.

* * *

The corridor pulsed red as the alert klaxon blared from the speakers all over the Geofront. Misato jogged up to where Maya huddled around a corner of the hallway.

"Asuka Hikari and Kaworu are on their way," Misato gasped, "but I'm not sure if Shinji understood me before the phone was destroyed!"

"What about those... things..." Maya asked, glancing down the hall Misato had come from.

"Yes, they're right behind me," Misato snapped, pulling on the tech's arm, "let's go!"

The two women took off.

A half minute later, a figure with blue hair appeared at the other end of the hall, walking steadily in the direction the two women had just taken. It looked like Rei, but strands of oily black covered half of her face like a giant bruise. Orange sparkles pulsed from the blackness into her face, as the black continued to spread and morph. A tech appeared from a side corridor and turned, stopping dead when he saw the Rei-thing.

"You-!" the tech pointed, his mouth opening and closing as he scrabbled backwards and tripped on his feet.

"We are Iruel of Borg. Lay still and this won't hurt too much." Rei smiled as the tech scrambled madly, but then she was upon him. "Resistance is futile." Her eyes glittered menacingly.

The scream that rang out was immediately abbreviated to a gurgle, then silence.

At this point in time, Misato had just burst into Central Dogma, raising her hands in surprise at the guns trained on her.

"Thank goodness," Ritsuko lowered her service automatic, palming the door shut behind Misato and locking it.

"The pilots are on their way," Misato said breathlessly, "what's the situation?"

"I estimate that twelve percent of our workforce has already been... Borgified." Behind her Maya snickered quietly. "Oh shut up Maya." Ritsuko didn't have the energy to lay into the tech like she usually did.

"How did the Angel take over the REIGI so quickly without us knowing?" Misato asked, looking over Maya's shoulder as the tech worked. "It is an Angel, right?"

"It is," Ritsuko answered. "And I don't know." The woman's lips curled. "It doesn't help that most of the diagnostic functionality was destroyed when the REIGI took over. We have almost no idea what's going on inside the processor cores now, unlike the original MAGI. I think she did that on purpose, but this time it's worked against her."

"And us!" Misato pointed out.

"Yes," Ritsuko sighed, "we're suffering for her mistake as well."

"Well," Shigeru murmured, "as long as we get things sorted out before the next Angel, we'll be okay."

"Oh no..." Hyuga's eyes widened as he looked at his screen.

"What is it?" Ritsuko snapped. "An Angel?"

"No ma'am." Hyuga's voice was strained. "Worse." His fingers flew, and the main holo-tank changed to show the airspace around Tokyo-3. It showed an ominous cloud of dots that could only be flights of fighters and bombers.

"They're attacking," Ritsuko mumbled disbelievingly. "The JSSDF is attacking us."

"What we're seeing is just the air arm," Hyuga warned. "I've already got reports of ground-force intrusions all along D-Block."

Ritsuko paled. D-Block held the main Linear Rail control lines.

"Ma'am," an unnamed tech called, "Unit-00 is ready for launch."

Ritsuko waved her hand absentmindedly, deep in thought. At that cue from her, Misato turned and faced the central pit. "LAUNCH EVA!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, then she did a little victory dance. "Take that, universe, haha!" she cackled. "I finally got to say it! Yipee!" She twirled happily.

"No wait!" Ritsuko called, seeing what she'd done. "Don't launch that Eva-"

"Oh no you don't you ninny!" Misato screeched, tackling the good doctor. "Don't interrupt my moment of victory!"

A cat-fight ensued as Unit-00 launched.

"Alright!" Asuka burst into Central Dogma with the other pilots hot on her heels. "I'm ready to be launched into glorious battle to singlehandedly- OH GODDAMMIT!" She shrilled, catching sight of Unit-00 as it went up the launch rails. The Unit managed to flip her off before it disappeared. Asuka's howl of fury followed the Eva up the launch tunnel.

* * *

Five NERV technicians were holed up in a side hallway as sounds of distant gunfire drew closer. Three of them were lying on the ground, strands of blackness spreading across their face and hands, the other two were bent over them worryingly, trying to revive them.

"C'mon, we've got to get out of here," the man said, pulling at his co-worker.

"We can't just leave them here!" The woman's ponytail flew as she turned her head, her eyes wide with fear. One of the Borgified crew-members stirred, mumbling sleepily. The woman helped him to a sitting position. The other two began moving as well.

"Fine, that's great," the standing tech said, hopping around nervously, "now let's go-!" He cut off when in the distance a group of soldiers ran past the hall opening. Another group came by, and three of them stopped, looking down the hallway. They jogged closer, raising their weapons to aim at the small group of techs.

"Why are you doing this to us?" one of the Borgified techs cried out, trying to struggle to his feet. The two standing techs shrank back, glancing longingly back to the safety of the next bend in the hallway. It was now too far to run without being cut down in the process.

"Sorry," one of the soldiers said, releasing the safety on his weapon. "Nothing personal." He took aim.

"No...!" The Borgified tech raised his hand, cringing back and looking away. He didn't notice how the black growth covering the palm of his hand suddenly began glowing a bright pink. There was a flash, a loud noise, and a wet splorching sound. The tech squinted open his eyes to see the remaining two soldiers looking at him, their eyes bugged out. The third soldier was gone. Splotches of red decorated the walls, and what looked like part of a leg lay against the wall in the distance. The female tech turned away, a hand over her mouth.

"Wh-what are they?" One of the soldiers asked, his voice quavering. The other two Borgified techs looked at the black growth covering their palm and forearms.

"They're freaks!" the other answered in a shrill high voice. He lifted his rifle and opened fire as the Borg-techs raised their hands palm-forwards at the soldiers.

In Central Dogma, Maya's monitor showed what was happening in that particular hallway. Misato Ristuko and Hyuga were clustered around looking over her shoulders. Maya put a hand to her mouth as the soldiers opened fire. She looked away when the three techs raised their hands in reply. Bursts of light shot down the hallway. Three crosses erupted out of the floor and walls, and the camera-view was reduced to lines of static.

"-implausible," Ritsuko murmured breathlessly.

"Sempai," Maya glanced back at Ritsuko, "does this mean... we should stop fighting against the Angel that's taken over the REIGI? If it's giving us powers that let us resist the JSSDF invaders..."

"Ma'am, what's this?" Shigeru looked up from the far terminal where he sat. Ritsuko hurried over. "It looks like..."

"No..." Ritsuko whispered. But the readouts didn't lie.

"Two more REIGI installations?" Shigeru asked, his face white with shock. In the background Misato could be heard shrilly yelling _Launch Eva!_

"Yes." Ritsuko typed rapidly, running queries. "Two REIGI installations, and the Angel hasn't taken them over." In the background, twin explosions as the two remaining Evas launched

"Maybe it doesn't even know they're here," Shigeru mumbled. In the background, light tapping of footsteps as Misato ran towards Ritsuko. Ritsuko turned and with a smooth motion grabbed Misato and clamped a hand over the woman's mouth.

"The next words out of your mouth better not be about how you got to say 'Launch Eva' again," Ritsuko warned. Misato vibrated happily. "I'm going to take my hand off your mouth now," Ritsuko informed her. Misato hopped up and down and nodded. Ritsuko removed her hand.

"Didja hear me say Launch Ev-"

Ritsuko shrieked in fury and another catfight ensued.

Meanwhile, a monitor across the room showed a flash of gray and a grim expression. It was Fuyutski, walking purposefully down a hallway, heedless of his own safety. He passed a side passage and three technicians, two of them with sub-machine-guns, almost ran into him.

"Sir! Sorry about that-" One of them stumbled over his words.

"Don't worry about it, son," Fuyutski waved the man's apology off. "Come with me."

"Where are we going, sir?" the other armed technician was female, though it looked like she was comfortable with her weapon.

"To get the Commander," Fuyutski replied. "He hasn't been seen since the alert, so-" Gunfire erupted from the direction Fuyutski had just come, and the old man barely had time to move to interpose his body in front of the female technician and throw up a warding arm, when the group of soldiers that had just come around the corner opened fire on them. He closed his eyes and waited for the end as the female tech shivered in his arms.

Nothing.

He creaked open his eyes and saw a shimmering wall of light going from floor to ceiling and wall to wall of the narrow corridor. And his right glove had burned off and Adam was glowing. The two armed techs looked at him in open wonder as the JSSDF soldiers backed away.

"Is... is he one of those freaks too?" one of the JSSDF soldiers asked.

"Can't be," another soldier snarled, "he hasn't got any of that black tar stuff on his face or hands!"

Fuyutski stared calmly towards the armed technicians, their sub-machine-guns slack in their hands.

"Well?" he said laconically. "Return fire."

"Oh..." one of the techs looked down at his gun in surprise. "Sorry sir!" He lifted the gun and pulled the trigger. The gun spat death at the JSSDF soldiers.

Back in Central Dogma Maya shot out of her seat thrusting her hands in the air.

"Yeeah! Go get'em Sub-Commander!"

"Oh stoppit," A very messed-up-looking Ritsuko pushed the woman back into her seat and looked at the monitor. Fuyutski now led over a dozen NERV techs and workers, many of them armed.

"He's pushing them back," Shigeru whispered. And he was. Faced with the multiple fronts of Iruel-infected NERV personnel, and those led by Fuyutski, the JSSDF attacks had been stalled. Which left the air support. Multiple thumps echoed in the distance above, making those in Central Dogma look up in concern.

"The JSSDF air force has broken through the city's outer defenses," Shigeru reported. "And... and... it can't be..."

Five white bird-like forms were slowly circling high over the city.

"The Eva series," Ritsuko whispered. "It's not complete yet, but they must have sent what they had..."

* * *

Missile trails snaked through the sky, seeking out the white winged Evas that circled overhead. Asuka laughed gleefully as she emptied the launcher she held in her left hand, then raised the one in her right.

"Just like Duck Hunt, right Hikari?" she snarled happily. Even as she emptied her remaining launcher at the 'birds' overhead, her initial salvo reached the Evas' position. As one they folded their wings, diving towards the city below, lances lowered as they dove. Explosions enveloped them, hiding them from sight as they descended.

"What is this 'Duck Hunt'?" Kaworu asked uncertainly. Hikari told him.

Soon the Evas were locked in mortal combat with their Mass Production brethren.

Despite everything, all combatants were properly stalemated. Fuyutski and the Iruelites were barely holding their own against the JSSDF, and no matter how much the white Mass Production Evas were damaged, they kept regenerating.

In Central Dogma, the technicians worried.

"How long can we keep this up?" Maya asked, tugging on Ritsuko's sleeve. The doctor merely shook her head in reply.

"Another Pattern Blue!" Hyuga cried out. "Coming from low Earth orbit!"

"Oh you've gotta be kidding me," Ritsuko murmured angrily. She looked around, and finally lashed out at the tried and true target she knew she could always turn to. "Where's that damn Unit Zero?" she spat. "We haven't had one report from it since it launched!"

"Oh, I'm sure it's doing okay," Misato purred from where she stood at Ritsuko's elbow. "_I_ launched it, after all!"

"YAAAAH!" Ritsuko threw herself on Misato. A hash of static erupted from Maya's terminal, then the screen indicated an incoming call from the city above. The static resolved into a frantic flight technician.

"I'm calling to report the theft of an F-Type transport!" the technician gasped.

"Ah, excuse me? Could you repeat that?" Maya asked.

"I said," the technician caught his breath, "A blue haired freak stole my plane!"

The call terminated. "Huh." Maya stared at her suddenly-blank screen. The main holotank changed to show the new Angelic intruder. The blip high above the holographic city-scape was slowly inching downwards. "Is it...?" She looked towards Hyuga, who nodded.

"It's de-orbiting. And when it hits land, a shock like that will wipe the city off the map!"

Maya's eyes were drawn by another blip, slowly crawling up the holo-display towards the falling Angel.

"And what's that?" Maya asked, indicating the blip.

"Thaaat..." Hyuga checked his screen, "would be Unit-00 in an F-Type going up to meet the Angel."

Meanwhile, up in the city, the white Evas were still proving impossible to permanently kill. Asuka cursed roundly in all the German dialects she knew. "What's it take," she huffed, dodging a swung lance, "to kill these things, huh? At this point I'd take _any_ help!" She happened to cast her eyes up in time to see a dot coming down towards the city. With a thought she enlarged the dot, and saw that it was Unit-00 riding on the back of an Angel covered in eyes. "-except from her! EXCEPT FROM HER!"

Unit-01 looked up, and both pilots froze in stunned shock.

"You know what, I give up." Asuka tossed her prog-knife over her shoulder. The five Mass Production Evas paused in their assault and looked up, sniffing the air like animals. They raised their hands as one, preparing to catch the Angel.

Rei had other plans. Her crimson eyes were wild as she surveyed the carnage below. Shinji was desperately trying to whisper soothing words into her ear to get her to calm down. Her hands clenched on the butterfly controls. She opened her mouth and screamed, "DIE, MOTHERFU-"

Boom.

Sahaquiel's obscene mass impacted the mass production Evas, flattening them like pancakes. Perhaps it helped the Rei had been actively impeding their AT-Fields just before impact. Sahaquiel bounced. Where he had landed, there were five white splotches, one red splotch, and one purple splotch.

"Yeah...!" Asuka raised her Eva's flattened arm weakly. "Regenerate from that, peckerheads!"

The Mass Production Units did not regenerate.

Rei and her Angel mount continued bouncing. "Poing! Poing! Poing!" Rei yelled happily. Every time she said 'Poing' the Eva-and-Angel combination flattened another regiment of JSSDF air or ground units.

The remains of Japan's defense force retreated quickly.

Rei 'poinged' her way out of Tokyo-3, heading in the direction of Old Tokyo. She bounced into the distance, disappearing over the horizon. Several minutes later a fountain of energy exploded up into the sky.

"Well," Maya sighed, "looks like Old Tokyo just got wrecked. Again."

"Oh shut up Maya."

* * *

After that, the two new REIGI installations cleansed their sister of her Iruel infection. Iruel slithered off to rejoin her Borgified troops. Units-01 and -02 were scraped off the pavement to regenerate. The mass production units were scraped off the pavement, chopped up, and fed to Lilith.

After everything got sorted out, the representatives of the major powers of Tokyo-3 gathered in a room to decide what to do next. At the head of the table were the nine Reis of the three REIGI installations, SWEET HARSH and CRAZY, DISTANT SECRETIVE and CYNICAL, and HONEST DISHONEST and JEALOUS. To their right sat a half-dozen NERV personnel that had been turned into Iruel-drones. Next up sat a grim-faced Fuyutski, his Adam-hand pulsing in and out slowly. Last of all sat three more LCL simulacrums. The first was Kyoko, who held a passed-out Asuka in her lap. The girl's arms were wrapped around her mother's neck, and her face was still wet with tears. Beside her was Yui, and Gendo was in her lap in much the same position as Asuka. Beside her sat a Rei-simulacrum that looked and acted oddly like CRAZY Rei. Then everyone noticed that it indeed was CRAZY Rei. The insane LCL simulacrum happily bounced in her seat and silently dared anyone to complain.

No one was foolish enough to do so.

* * *

One Tension-Filled Meeting Later...

Fuyutski separated from the throng and happened to notice Shinji. The poor boy looked particularly down-trodden. Fuyutski approached him and then noticed that Rei was with him, and she was quite obviously chewing him out for something. Fuyutski walked over and clapped the boy on the shoulder.

"Congratulations!" he boomed.

"On... what?" Shinji tried to get his breath back.

"You're going to be a father!" Fuyutski beamed at the confused boy. "Twins!" He winked. "If you ever need someone to talk to, you know where my office is!" He turned and walked off.

"Twins?" Shinji mumbled. He glanced over towards Rei, who had a blank look in her eyes.

Later that night they were lying in bed, Rei huddled in a fetal position on her side, Shinji embracing her from the back. He knew every inch of Rei, and it surprised him that he had missed it. Now that he knew what to look for, he could feel the barest of changes at her stomach area. It was tighter than it normally felt, and there was a very slight bulge.

"What are we going to do?" Rei whispered.

Shinji pulled her closer, letting himself get lost in the feeling of happiness welling up inside of him. "I love you," he whispered back. She didn't so much as move or shake, but he saw wetness drip across her nose to fall and be absorbed by the sheet. She didn't make a move to hide it or wipe it away.


	9. Dark Maya Wants Your Soul

Dark Maya Wants Your Soul

* * *

Deep down in the Geofront, the Harmonics test plug room was quiet. The lake of purple coolant was as still as a pane of glass, and the three test-plugs jutted out of it like iron posts stuck into the ground at an angle. The left plug contained Asuka, and it was dead silent. The redhead within was trying to up her sync score by burying the deep feelings of murder she held in her heart concerning a certain blue-haired temptress. The right test plug contained Kaworu and Hikari, and it was dead silent. This was a miracle in and of itself, but never mind.

The middle plug contained Shinji and Rei, and to all outside appearances, it too was silent. Unless you got really close, then you would see slowly expanding rings in the coolant surrounding their plug. More rings. The traveled outward, dissipating with the distance. If you put your ear right up to the plug itself, you might hear a sharp outcry, quickly muted.

In the control room, Ritsuko brooded as she observed her charges. She too was thinking deep dark thoughts about a certain albino. She noted that Maya was frowning, and staring at her console too hard. "What is it?" she asked.

"I don't know," Maya answered. "I'm getting a slight feedback from the First and Third's test plug.

"Just like the one you got ten minutes ago?" Ritsuko asked. "And ten minutes before that?"

"Yeah." The brown-haired technician looked up in confusion. "Do you think it could be a cyclical echo?"

"Is it within tolerance?" Ritsuko asked.

"Well, yes-"

"Then it doesn't matter." The blond-haired doctor turned away in disgust. She refused to spend any unnecessary time on a problem concerning those two. Not when that time could be better put to use plotting their demise.

Maya continued plying at her console, she frowned again, hunched over, typed rapidly, sat up, cocked her head to the side, then promptly had a massive nosebleed all over her keyboard.

"Good God, Maya!" Ritsuko stormed over. "That's your fourth keyboard this week!" She happened to look up at Maya's screen, and came to a dead stop, her expression a mixture of disgust and outrage. And jealousy. Shinji appeared to be a better man than Gendo. "Hyuga!" she spat.

"Yes ma'am?" he said, turning to face her as he adjusted his glasses.

"After this test is over, I want the middle test plug thoroughly cleansed. Oh, and replace the LCL filters too," she muttered. "The last thing we need is... impurities... in the main LCL storage plant."

Up on the command deck, Gendo and Yui were blissfully unaware of what was happening just a few dozen meters down on Balthasar's deck.

"The old men actually ordered an attack on us. I still can't believe it." He also couldn't believe he was talking to an LCL simulacrum that looked and acted exactly like his supposedly dead wife. "I mean, this time it was just the JSSDF. What will we do if the whole world attacks us?"

"We purge them with fire, silly!" she said in a sweet tone of voice.

Gendo smiled as he looked into her eyes. "I've missed you."

They kissed.

The alert siren went off.

The main holoviewer changed to show near-tokyo air-space. Gendo cleared his throat, stepping over to the edge of the railing. "Status report!" he demanded. Below, Ritsuko had just finished replacing Maya's blood-stained keyboard.

"Pattern Blue has appeared directly over the middle of the city!" Shigeru called. "Sensors are unable to get a clear read, but we have a visual!"

The display zoomed in to show a giant zebra-striped sphere floating over the mega-scrapers of Tokyo-3.

"Prepare the pilots for combat!" Ritsuko ordered. "And for the love of God, someone give Misato a call so she can get here in time to say 'Launch Eva!' I can't stand any more of her whining!"

* * *

Shinji sat in the plug-set of Unit-00, his arms loosely around Rei, and tried not to fidget. Rei's attitude had taken a complete one-eighty turn in the past month or so, and he wasn't sure which side of her he was best equipped to deal with. She shifted in his lap, turning her head to nuzzle him. She made a deep sound in her throat that set his nerves buzzing.

"Rei," he said, his fatigue allowing exasperation to enter his tone. "I'm tired."

"Well I'm not." She sighed and leaned back, pulling his arms around her stomach. He could feel a noticeable protrusion now, a roundness that made him feel things he didn't quite understand fully. It was a mixture of fear and exhilaration that made him wary in everyday life like he had never been before. He worried over Rei now, and he could see that she enjoyed it. She wasn't being careful enough, in his opinion, but whenever he let that feeling out in either words or actions, it seemed she made special effort to let herself go even further and make him worry more.

The murmur of technicians' voices over the comm system heralded the beginning of contact. The seconds drifted by and he waited for the moment when the girl in his arms would transform further into something he didn't understand and was yet drawn to, like a moth to deadly flame. He held her tightly, closing his eyes in surrender. It would be okay. All he had to do was hold on, until it was all over.

"Don't hold me so tightly." Rei's voice was slightly pained. He loosened his grip, looking at her with wide eyes. She reached up a hand to his cheek, tilting her head. "You don't have to be afraid," she said soothingly. "It's okay..." She lightly touched her lips to his, then set her head on his chest. He took a breath, then let it out slowly, resting his chin on her head. For some reason he felt calmer.

Over the comm system, a technician reported third contact achieved. Hypnotic lights and shapes ran down the entry plug walls, to be replaced by the gloom of the Eva cages when contact was established. Rei shifted slightly, her hair moving against his chin. "Shinji?"

"Yeah?"

"It's alright to be afraid now."

"Wh-What?"

* * *

Shinji crouched behind the plug seat, looking hesitantly over its edge to where Rei floated, hands on the front of the plug wall, staring with rapt attention at the zebra-striped sphere high up in the air. Unit-00 was standing on tiptoes on top of a building, arms outstretched, looking up at the Angel. A pool of blackness lapped at the pavement, its edge barely resting against the building on top of which they stood. It was a perfect circle of nothingness that had its epicenter directly underneath the Angel.

Asuka's launch had been held up due to Misato bursting into Central Dogma at the last minute. The woman had been forced to take a few seconds to catch her breath before she could utter the magic words, all the while Asuka yelling over the comm system about how unfair it all was. That had been minutes ago. Shinji had no idea where Asuka or Hikari-and-Kaworu were at the moment. He had more important things on his mind, like staying sane for the rest of the battle.

"-umm, Rei?" he called. She did not seem to even hear the words. "Can we step away from the edge just a bit?" No response. "Rei-AAAH!" She had inched the Eva forward to where its armored feet just barely hung off the edge of the building. His exclamation was cut off when a woman appeared inside the Eva.

She was taller than Rei, with creamy skin almost as white as the albino's. Billowing black hair fell over her shoulders and back, reaching to her waist. She had an oval face, and her complexion was flawless. She was beautiful in every way, but this only registered dimly with Shinji. He couldn't tell if she was wearing anything, but this too was pushed far back in his mind.

Suddenly the three of them were in a close circle, and his breath caught in his throat. Her presence seemed to fill the small space of the entry plug with a vibrancy that made it hard to breath or sit still. Her eyes shone as if with some inexpressible glee. He knew he was looking at Rei's mother, her true mother, the one she had told him about months ago. He wanted both to apologize abjectly to Rei for not truly believing her, and at the same time fall on his face before the woman herself, but he could do neither.

The woman smiled, and Shinji wondered if he would ever be able to speak again. "Rei, didn't Arael tell you not to bring home any weirdos?"

Rei slipped her arm through his, drifting closer to him, and he grinned like a fool.

"Never mind," the woman said, her eyes twinkling. "This is a tricky operation, actually, so both of you listen carefully. If things don't go exactly right, you could be trapped forever in a null dimension-"

Shinji felt a sudden sharp pain in his back.

* * *

Asuka watched as Unit-00 sailed through the air and disappeared into the pool of blackness with a 'ploop'.

"-oopsie!" she said in a sing-song voice, lowering her Eva's foot from where she had just delivered a swift kick into Shinji's backside. "Now, to deal with the Angel... huh." The Angel was gone. The pool of blackness was gone. A wicked smile crept over her German features. "Well, that works too!"

"-Asuka! Asuka, can you hear me?" Misato's voice was tinny and the video link was unusually grainy. "We're still trying to get sensors back up, is everything okay out there?"

"Don't worry, Misato," Asuka proclaimed haughtily. "The Angel's dead! Oh, it put up a fight, and-it-killed-Shinji-and-Rei," she said hurriedly, "but with great valor I managed to slay it! You're all saved!"

"Wait, Shinji and Rei are what?" Misato asked.

Hikari's video rectangle popped up. "Did you say they're dead?" she wailed. Unit-01 jogged up to where Asuka stood.

"Jeez," Asuka huffed, "what's all the fuss? I'm the one who saved your sorry asses!"

* * *

After that, in a secret room somewhere in the Geofront, there was a party. The four original members of Ritsuko's Rangers were the hosts, and not a few Iruelites showed up, which creeped out the rest of the party-goers. There was a giant cake, noise-makers, streamers everywhere, and a big banner that hung from the ceiling. It said, "ding dong the albino's dead!" and everyone made merry.

All except Maya. She took quite a few pictures with her cell-phone camera.

The next day, a commercial appeared on all the major television stations, styled after a popular political campaign commercial. It showed the pictures of the party, then it showed pictures of the original four Ritsuko's Rangers, and it harangued them. At the very end was a message that said, 'paid for by the Anti-Akagi League.'

When she saw this commercial, Ritsuko was wroth.

* * *

As those in the Geofront went about their daily duties, they were brought to a halt by the audible two-tone urgent announcement warning. Everyone found one of the many ubiquitous monitors stationed around the place, and waited patiently or impatiently as the case may be. In the halls, clusters of technicians. In offices, people crowded around someone's desk, looking at their monitor. In the common rooms, multitudes of people milling around, waiting with baited breath.

The screens came to life, and a hush fell over the whole Geofront. An empty podium. Fuyutski entered the view from the side, and walked up to the podium, his bearing grim. He cleared his throat.

"This morning at approximately eleven-hundred hours, a massive disturbance was detected near Area 51 in the United States of America, in Nevada. From satellite imagery, we believe that an attempt was made to activate one of the two remaining Evangelions not currently residing in Japan." Fuyutski took a moment to look up at the cameras.

"That attempt ended in failure. At the same time, a Pattern Blue was detected in the Massachusetts branch, also in the US. This, we believe, was an attempt to activate the other Evangelion. Because of the fires and smoke, we no longer have a clear satellite image of the Massachusetts area, but the Pattern Blue disappeared near the Atlantic coastline." Fuyutski paused, running a hand down his face.

"What remains of the Japanese Strategic Self Defense Force has been mobilized, under new leadership. As always, the Japanese people stand united and alone, confident in our superiority as the operators of the world's remaining two Evangelions. Nevertheless, we don't know how the rest of the world will react to America's hostility, or if America's Eva activation attempt was the first step of a world-wide attempt to invade Japan." Fuyutski stared levelly into the cameras.

"In any case, it is my duty to inform you that as of right now, we are at war. That is all."

Fuyutski was suddenly shoved aside by bleached blond fury. "-and whoever's behind the 'Anti-Akagi League' is going to pay!" Ritsuko shrieked. She was openly wearing her "Ritsuko's Rangers" arm-band. "History will vindicate us!" Beside her, Asuka and Hyuga stepped into the picture. An uneasy Maya hovered near the edge of the viewer. "We will bury you!" Ritsuko screamed, taking off one of her high-heels and pounding it against the podium. "We will bury you!"

The broadcast suddenly cut off.

* * *

A private wake was held for Shinji and Rei. Section 2 officers screened all those who entered to keep out the riff-raff. In this case, 'riff-raff' was anyone associated with Ritsuko's Rangers. Nonetheless, Ritsuko kept close watch over all who entered. While the security cameras of the room itself were disabled, the cameras watching the hall outside were enough to keep tabs of who went in.

"Sempai, don't you think you're going overboard a little?" Maya asked worriedly.

"Hell no!" Ritsuko snapped. "You can bet your tight little ass that whoever pulled that 'Anti-Akagi League' shit is in that room!"

"Maybe they're just people who liked Shinji and Rei," Maya said uneasily.

"Anyone who liked that blue-haired twit is a suspect in my book," Ritsuko spat venomously.

"You shouldn't speak ill of the dead, Sempai," the brown-haired tech murmured.

Ritsuko twitched, her expression softening as she looked at Maya. "-mmm, whatever," she finally said. "She's gone, that's all that matters."

In the other room, the wake continued. Everyone present formed a line and slowly walked by a folding table that had been set up. On it were pictures of the two, some separate, and a very few of them together. Everyone who passed laid a card, or left a flower. There were not a few tears. Yui cried, turning into Gendo's embrace. The stern-faced man held her patiently.

"Sorry," Yui sniffled. "For a minute there it felt like Shinji was hugging me." She looked over at Gendo. "By the way, why are you limping, dear?"

"Oh," Gendo grunted. "I... hurt my foot. I stepped wrong, or something." They slowly made their way back to their seats, as did everyone else.

The place was quiet and reverent, even when people stood one by one to say a word or two about their memories of the two introverted teens. Yui wiped at her eyes with a handkerchief. As the wake wore on, the speeches became fewer. Suddenly Gendo's chair gave way with a crash, dumping him to the floor. He hastily picked himself up and got a new chair.

"Sorry," he muttered toYui.

"You're going on a diet," she hissed back.

"But, but Yui!" he protested. She glared, and he wilted. "Yes, Yui."

Hours later, the wake was over. The people had left, the room was dark and silent.

But not quite empty. Two shady presences sat in chairs, at the very back, nearly hidden in shadow.

"No one saw us," Shinji commented. He looked at the presence beside him uneasily. "Are we ghosts now?" Rei did not reply to this, which was as usual, but did not help his mood. "I tried hugging mom, but I don't think she felt me, even though she cried." Shinji's voice had become husky. He cleared his throat and looked to the side. Rei's still form looked more pale ethereal than ever. "So what did you do during the wake?"

"I pushed Gendo into a wall and made him stub his toe," Rei answered. Shinji snorted uncontrollably, then raised a hand to cover his mouth. "Then I broke his chair. Why are you laughing? I was unable to make him cry like you made Yui cry."

"-umm, Rei," Shinji tried desperately to quell his laughter, "I think mom was crying for a different reason..." He fell silent, as did she. After a few minutes, he looked around. "By the way, why are we still here? Weren't we supposed to go to your home, that place you told me about?"

"Yes, we were. Something went wrong."

"Oh." Shinji fell silent. "What... what now?"

Rei did not speak for a time. Then she said, "The last thing I remember is Leliel telling me that Fuyutski holds the key to our return."

"Fuyutski?" Shinji was bewildered. "But how?"

"I don't know."

They sat in silence for a while.

Shinji fidgeted. "Should we go talk to Fuyutski, then?"

"We won't even know what to ask," Rei pointed out. "We should talk to Maya."

"Why Maya?"

"We need someone who has technical knowledge, and we can't go to Ritsuko."

"Oh." Shinji scratched his head. "That makes sense. Now that you mention it, where is Maya?"

"I don't know," Rei replied. "She is not in her office."

* * *

In fact, Maya had left the Geofront altogether. She and the rest of Ritsuko's Rangers were making a covert assault on the Matsushiro site. A half-dozen Iruelites were with them as guards. They quickly overcame the watch that had been set at the east entrance, then quietly made their way deep into the facility. Within an hour, they had taken over the MAGI installation there.

No alarm had been raised, and the REIGI in Tokyo-3 was unprepared for the sudden assault. Before anyone realized it, Ritsuko had put Tokyo-3's REIGI installation into sleep-mode, taking over its command functions and power for herself.

In very short order, Ritsuko had taken command of both Tokyo-3 and Matsushiro. With the power of the Iruelites on her side, she began a reign of terror that would be remembered for quite a long time afterwards.

All nonessential personnel were sent to the shelters where they could be watched vigilantly by Iruelite guards. Without the REIGI and its LCL-forms, no one could stand against their power. No one except...

Down a nameless hall of the Geofront, two Iruelites jogged, looking for all the world like Borg-rejects. "Hurry," one snapped to the other. "Fuyutski was spotted in C Quadrant ten minutes ago, he can't have gotten far."

"Right," the other replied. "This time he won't escape."

Several doors down, a female Iruelite was standing watchfully before a door. Inside the room were Gendo, Yui, and the other senior NERV technicians. They had been caught early in the takeover and were being held prisoner.

The woman guarding their room turned her head and looked one way. No one there. She turned her head to look the other way... and saw Fuyutski's stern face inches from hers. She opened her mouth to cry out.

"Sleep," the man said, putting his hand on her head. The woman fell like a sack of potatoes.

He opened the door. Inside, half a dozen nervous heads turned.

Gendo stood. "Sensei." His voice carried his relief.

"We should move to a more secure location," Fuyutski said laconically.

Everyone followed him.

"They took over the REIGI," Yui commented.

"I know." Fuyutski sounded bored.

"The two newer REIGI installations went silent, because with them against Ritsuko's two MAGI, it would have been an even match." Yui looked worried. "Actually, Maya was supposed to report in to us over an hour ago. She was with Ritsuko at Matsushiro, she said she would be back as soon as she got Ritsuko's access subroutines."

"Matsushiro?" Fuyutski stared levelly at Yui.

* * *

Rei strolled in a ghostly way through the halls of the Matsushiro facility.

Shinji looked at her. "Why are we here again?"

"Because I feel Maya's presence," Rei said.

"Why are you the one that feels this stuff? Why can't I feel things like that?"

They came to a closed door. Rei made a gesture with her hands, and hopped through the solid surface. Shinji narrowed his eyes, made the gesture, hopped, and slammed into the wall. "-and why can't I ever get this right?" He made the gesture again, and slammed into the wall again. He noted something, and his face lit up. "Hey! I got my pinky through!"

"Stop wasting time," Rei's voice drifted through the wall.

Frowning, Shinji backed up, made the gesture... then tapped the door controls and scooted through when it opened for him.

He jogged to catch up with Rei. "I got through," he said breezily.

"Good."

Rei led him further into Matsushiro. They came to a room, and inside it was Maya. The woman had been tied to a cross, and had an IV sticking out of her left arm.

"She's asleep," Rei noted.

"Why would they do this?" Shinji asked in horror.

"I don't know." Rei moved towards Maya, and then they heard talking outside. "Hide yourself," Rei ordered. She quickly raised a hand, held her nose, and closed her eyes. She faded from view. Shinji held his nose and closed his eyes, squeezing them shut. A tendril of worry crept through him. He cracked an eye open and glanced down. His feet were gone, and his legs were see-through, but he was still there.

"Rei, help me!" he hissed. "It's not working!"

His whispers echoed in the dark room. He wondered if she had left the room entirely. The approaching voices got louder, then the door slid open. He squeezed his eyes shut and concentrated for all he was worth.

* * *

Two nameless people walked into the room. One was male, the other female. They looked. Maya was still tied to the cross, as per Ritsuko's orders, and they saw no one else in the room.

"You know," the man said, "it still creeps me out that Ritsuko-" The woman glared at him. "-err, the Great Akagi, could do something like this to one of her own."

"This is what happens to traitors," the woman said coldly. "Now come on, we were told to increase the dose of drugs given to her. We need to break her as soon as possible."

"Alright, alright," the man said, following meekly along.

The woman opened her medical case and pulled out a hypodermic syringe, flicking the needle to make sure it was clear. "You go inject her, I'll check her vitals." She handed him the syringe.

"Why do I get all the dirty work?" he whined, taking the needle and walking towards Maya.

"Shut it," the other woman ordered. "Just do your job."

"Right..." The man walked over and reached for Maya's IV line so he could inject the drugs into it. The line moved slightly, avoiding his fingers. He leaned over, reaching again. It skittered out of his grasp again. "-the hell?" He snatched for it, finally getting hold of it. "Gotcha, you little bastard," he muttered.

"What's the hold-up over there?" the woman snapped.

"Nothing," the man said quickly. "Let me just-" He bent over to stick the needle into the IV line, when the metal part of the needle suddenly became bent at an angle. He yelped and dropped the hypodermic. It fell a foot, then hovered in mid-air. He opened his mouth, but no words came out. The syringe wavered in mid-air, then darted towards him. He ran screaming, and ended up in the woman's arms.

The woman glared at him, he being scrunched up against her, his face an inch from hers. "I assume you have an explanation for this?" She muttered, giving him an I-am-not-amused glare.

"P-P-Possessed syringe!" the man got out, pointing back behind him. The syringe now lay on the floor. "Yeah," the woman muttered. "I can see that. Really scary stuff."

"No!" the man jumped away from the woman, and glared down at the hypodermic. It sat there unmoving. "It wouldn't go in! Then the needle bent... And then, and then..." He stepped over to the syringe, picking it up gingerly. "C'mon!" he urged, holding it out and letting it go. "Hang in mid-air, damn you!" It fell to the floor.

"Yeah, really convincing," the woman said.

"No, just wait!" The man bent over to pick it up, and it rolled over away from his fingers. He twitched away, his eyes wide. "There!" he yelled. "It moved! Did you see that?"

"You kicked it," the woman said, seemingly with the infinite patience one needed when dealing with a pre-schooler.

"-dah!" The man stamped down on the syringe. The plastic container burst, spraying yellow fluid onto the ceramic-tiled floor. "Not going anywhere now, are you?" he taunted the broken hypodermic.

"Oh for God's sake!" the woman put a hand to her face, covering her eyes. "You know, I think you're the one who needs to be drugged, here..." She trailed off when she noticed his eyes were wide, and his face had gone white. "Oh what now?" she sighed. He pointed a shaking finger.

On the tile floor, the liquid from the syringe was spelling itself out into words, as if someone were dragging their finger through it to write.

"Dark..." the woman bent closer, trying to read the smudged words as they wrote themselves out, "Maya... wants... your... soul." She cocked her head to the side. "Huh." She looked up at Maya, still unconscious. The man followed her gaze. Maya's hand twitched. The both of them ran screaming.

The room was silent for a time. Then the outline of a black-haired boy slowly appeared, becoming distinct. Shinji looked around. "Rei?" he called. "Are you still here?" He stepped around, stretching out his arms as if he hoped to find her by touch. "That was you, wasn't it?"

"It was me," a quiet voice said. He jumped, looking behind him. Rei stared at him levelly.

"'Dark Maya'?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow. She did not respond. "So what do we do now?" he asked.

"We wake her up and find out what we need to know."

"What?" Shinji yelped. "How does that make us any better than Ritsuko?" Rei said nothing to this. "We should at least try to get her out of here," he said, exasperated.

"How?" Rei asked.

"Well, I don't know, you're always the one who thinks up things like that-" He cut off when more voices came from outside the door. Shinji glanced back at the door. One of them sounded like Ritsuko, and she sounded angry. He glanced back to Rei, but she was no longer there. "Darn it, Rei!" He held his nose and squeezed his eyes shut, willing himself to be invisible. After a few seconds, he cracked an eye open. Everything was still there. "Oh crap..." The door opened. He shrank back against the wall and put his hands over his eyes. _You-can't-see-me-you-can't-see-me-you-can't-see-me..._

Ritsuko and the two scared technicians breezed into the room past Shinji. He squinted through his fingers. Ritsuko had passed right by him. He looked down at himself. Everything was still there. Ritsuko was currently haranguing the techs, really laying into them. Shinji tiptoed over and waved a hand in front of her eyes. She gave no indication she saw it.

"Rei," he called in a low voice. "Hey, Rei!"

Rei faded into existence beside him with a sigh. She cocked her head, looking at him out of the corner of her eyes. "You're hopeless," she said. "Did you know that?"

Their conversation, and Ritsuko's haranguing, were brought to a screeching halt when the lights failed, then the emergency lighting came on. "Damn it!" Ritsuko snapped. "Bring her up to the Command Center!"

The two techs unhinged Maya's cross from the wall, and everyone went to the Command Center.

Shinji looked at Rei helplessly. They followed the procession.

* * *

Ritsuko strode into the Command Center. "Report!" she yelled.

A female technician turned to look at her. "The MAGI installations from around the world are launching a concerted attack on us and on Tokyo-3! Time to complete MAGI shutdown, fifty-seven seconds..."

Ritsuko shoved the woman out of the way and typed rapidly. On the main flat-screen that dominated the far wall, the attack vectors arrowing in on all sides were halted by a multitude of barriers that came into existence, and the glowing red numerals '666' flashed on top of the screen.

The woman looked over Ritsuko's shoulder in awe. "Time to shut-down is now sixty two hours and twenty- seven minutes," she breathed.

"We still don't have access to the two newer REIGI installations," Ritsuko said icily. "If only I knew what protocols were used in their creation, I could have taken them over as well..."

"Ma'am!" Hyuga called in alarm. "I'm getting reports of intrusion all along the eastern entrances! Our forces are holding for now, but it appears that the UN has made several major landings in the past few hours..."

"They won't get past the Iruelites," Ritsuko said sullenly.

Another alarm sounded, and Ritsuko turned in fury. "What now?" she spat.

"We're getting reports that Unit-03 has made landfall and is headed for Tokyo-3!" a female technician reported.

"Unit-03?" Hyuga said in alarm. "The Eva that went rogue and walked out of Massachusetts into the Atlantic ocean?"

The viewer changed to show a top-down map of the near-Tokyo region, with a slowly-moving blip that indicated the rogue Eva's progress.

"Have our forces in Tokyo-3 launch Units -01 and -02," Ritsuko ordered.

"Yes ma'am." Hyuga turned back to his console.

* * *

Meanwhile, in a locked cell somewhere in the Geofront, Misato was lying forlornly on a bed. Suddenly a few hairs in her bangs twanged upwards like antennae. The raven-haired woman suddenly sat up in alarm.

"S-Somewhere an Eva is about to be launched," the woman muttered feverishly.

She jumped up and looked all around. "L-Launch Eva!" she called hesitantly.

She got up on the bed and began banging on the air vent. "Launch Eva!" she called into it, hoping her voice carried. "Launch Eva...!"

* * *

Back in the land of the sane...

Evas were preparing for launch. In Central Dogma, Shigeru Aoba and a nameless tech sat at their consoles. The two Evas trundled slowly out to the launch rails. Shigeru leaned back, stretched, and gave a giant yawn.

"Kinda quiet, huh?"

"Yeah," the other woman said hesitantly. Had they bothered to put their ear down to the floor vent, they might have heard a very tiny voice yelling 'Launch Eva'.

Then again, they might not have.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in Ritsuko's command center in Matsushiro, everything was going swimmingly. The Evas were about to be launched, an unconscious Maya was hanging on a cross against the far wall, and the invading UN forces were being held back by humans who had been overtaken by the Iruel virus and turned into Borgs.

_Yes,_ Ritsuko thought, looking up at the logo over the main screen, _God is indeed in his Heaven, and all is right with the world._

The south wall of the Command Center began to melt. Or rather, a giant hole was melted through it. Before Ritsuko could twitch an eyebrow or utter an epithet, Fuyutski had stepped through the hole. His Adam-hand was glowing.

"I'm here for Maya," he said genially, looking around and smiling. "Release her, or I'll level this entire facility."

* * *

For once, Asuka marched her Unit out of the entry point with all the grace and majesty she deserved. Around her, heat waves shimmered on the horizon. Her one and only wingman was her best friend, not that idiot and his attention-getting blue-haired copilot. Yes, life was good.

"You ready to do this, Hikari?" Asuka called.

A video link appeared showing Kaworu, with Hikari peeking around the back of his head. Kaworu opened his mouth to speak, and Hikari put a hand over it. "We're ready," she said.

"Good. Now..." Asuka's words died in her mouth when she saw what they faced. Those weren't heat waves on the horizon, it was the exhausts of all the planes. There was a solid blanket of them in all directions, that was why it hadn't registered.

Asuka lifted her twin pallete rifles and fired. She turned a slow circle, spreading the fire all around her. Explosions dotted the horizon, and showers of debris hung in the air, slowly falling like streamers of confetti. When she ran out of ammo, there was still a solid blanket of planes covering the horizon on all sides.

"Yeah, I'm gonna go get a minigun." Asuka turned towards the nearest heavy-lift elevator. She came face to face with a cruelly-smiling Unit-03. The other Eva bit her in the neck. Hikari let out a scream of rage, charged forward, and cut the Eva in half with her double-bladed chainsaw.

Then Asuka found that her Eva wasn't under her control any more. She pounded on her useless butterfly controls in frustration. "Gottdammit!" she yelled. "Why me? Why does this crap always happen to me?" Her Eva took a wild swing at Hikari's Unit-01. The other Eva dodged, then backed up.

A comm box opened up. "Asuka, are you okay?" Hikari yelled.

"Yes, Hikari," Asuka snapped, irony dripping from her words, "I was just trying to give you a congratulatory slap on the back."

"Oh, thank goodness," Hikari looked relieved.

"Hell no!" Asuka shrieked. "That thing bit me, and now I've got no control! Run the f—k away!"

"R-Really?" Hikari looked scared.

Asuka closed her eyes with a sigh of disgust. There was really only one option now, one she had promised herself she would never activate on her own. She ran both hands down her face, took a deep breath, then reached over and hit the activation release for her dummy plug.

Rei's face popped up on the main screen, and she looked far too pleased with herself. "Greetings!" she said happily. "I'm Rei 2.0, **D**eranged **U**nit..."

"-yeah yeah, get on with it!" Asuka snapped.

"...**M**anual-override **M**anagement s**Y**stem," Rei 2.0 continued. "Please listen carefully as our menu options have changed." Rei 2.0 paused and took a breath.

"Hurry the f—k up!" Asuka yelled. From what she could see around Rei 2.0's head, her Unit was busy chasing Hikari's Eva all over the place.

Rei 2.0 smiled just a little more. "If your Eva has been taken over by a hostile foreign life-form, please press one."

"Yeah, that sounds like it," Asuka snapped, reaching for the glowing numeral that had appeared in her heads-up display.

"If you have lost consciousness," Rei 2.0 continued, "please press two." A second glowing numeral appeared.

Asuka paused, one of her fiery red eyebrows twitching in frustration. "Now that just makes no sense! If I was unconscious, how would I press-"

Rei 2.0 continued as if Asuka weren't there. "Or, to scour the earth with fiery death, please press three."

Asuka's hand wavered. She looked out the view-screen at the vast forces arrayed against her, and saw the ruin of her beloved city in the near future. "Oh, why the f—k not?" she wailed, smashing her hand down on the third option.

"You have selected, 'scour the earth with fiery death'," Rei 2.0 said sweetly. "Please don't regret what happens next!" She smiled, then disappeared.

"The only thing I'm regretting is activating your sorry ass," Asuka snapped, resting her hands on her controls. "Huh. It stopped moving." She experimentally took a step. The Eva moved at her command. Hikari was still running away. "It's okay, Hikari!" Asuka called. "I got it, you can stop running now!"

Hikari's comm box popped back up. "R-Really?" The girl looked harried, but relieved. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Of course I'm sure I'm okay-AAACH!" Her back arched, and she almost passed out from the pain. Four searing needles were being driven into her skull. She gripped her head, trying to blot out the pain. With her Eva's hands, she felt what seemed to be horn-like protrusions coming out of her Eva's head. White-hot fury burned down her back. Now she felt spike-like things running down her back as well.

Hikari's comm box was fuzzed with lines of static. "-umm, Asuka? Are... Are you-"

"Keep running!" Asuka screamed. "For Gottsake, keep running!"

Hikari didn't have to be told twice.

* * *

The south entrance of the Matsushiro site was a crumbling ruin. Through the giant hole in the wall, one could see a series of melted and destroyed walls clear through to the command center. Fuyutski stumbled through the outer hole, Maya's unconscious form slung over his shoulder.

He stood aghast at the desolation around Tokyo-3. He saw a red shape leaping through the air. It no longer looked anything at all like an Eva, nor did it move like one. A burst of fire shot from it like a flamethrower, engulfing an entire flight of planes, sending them plummeting to the ground to join thousands of their brethren burning below. There were many thousands more still in the air.

Fires burned around him, and bullets spent themselves on a wavering hexagon of light behind him. A bright burst of pink light flared against the defensive field. Dazzling pink streamers stretched out towards him from all sides, a ragged circle of Borgified technicians pummeled him with fire. Hexagons surrounded him, drawing closer and closer together.

A ball of shining white crackled in the Subcommander's hand, illuminating his snarl. He looked around himself in anger, then raised his hand. The ball of snarling white got much larger.

* * *

Central Dogma looked almost normal. Gendo and Yui sat up on the command deck, with Shigeru Aoba and a few other technicians below on Balthasar's bridge. There had been no guards posted outside, oddly enough. Or not, considering they were under heavy ground attack, and the Iruelites were the only ones who had a chance, so they were all on the front lines.

The main holo-tank showed the devastation surrounding Tokyo-3. Fires burned, heaps of airships were piled about at the edges of the city, and a red thing was still jumping around, shooting flame everywhere.

"She's still got three minutes left of activation time," a female tech said quietly.

"She won't need that much," Gendo observed grimly.

"No," Yui agreed. She looked at her husband brightly. "Didn't I tell you we'd have to purge them-"

"...with fire, yes, I remember," Gendo replied.

"It's always so messy, though," Yui sniffed.

"Yes, it is," Gendo agreed.

The doors to Central Dogma slid aside, and Fuyutski stumbled onto the main bridge. He was singed and burnt, his clothes hanging in tatters. He gently set Maya down in a chair. The tech was just beginning to come to.

"Sorry I'm late," he said hoarsely. "There were too many of them." Then he fell over in a heap.

"Sensei...!" Gendo got out of his chair and fell to his knees, cradling the man's head in his lap. A very drunk-looking Maya was pulling herself groggily towards a keyboard.

* * *

Balthasar's innards lay exposed, his main tower had been raised so that Maya could get at his innards. She was currently up to her waist in wires and circuitry, with Yui standing around looking worried.

"Wire cutters," Maya said, reaching an empty hand towards Yui. The woman looked around, found wire cutter, and handed them to the tech.

"Phillips head screw-driver." Maya held out her hand. Yui got one for her.

"Secondary power coupling." Yui got them.

"Standard computer uplink." Yui got it.

"Hydrospanner," Maya said, holding out her hand. Yui looked confused. "Just kidding." Maya grinned, her face smudged with grease. "Hand me that drill. No, not that one, the really big one."

* * *

Gendo, and Yui stood on the Command deck looking over Maya's shoulder.

"Alright," the brown-haired tech muttered, "this should do it." She typed in a long string of code, and sat back.

The main holo-tank went dead, as did every light in the building.

"Well, shit," Maya said, with feeling. The lights came back on. "I mean, good!" Maya corrected herself.

The main holo-tank lit back up, showing a very angry-looking Rei 2.0. "Well, now I'm just pissed," the albino said. Behind her in the holo-tank, the outskirts of Tokyo-3 appeared to be on fire. Rei 2.0 glanced behind her. "I see that fool out there chose option three," she observed.

"What do we do now?" Yui asked.

Maya smiled. "Stay out of the way."

"Correct," Rei 2.0 said. "My sister installations and I are now complete. Activating the Trinity Protocol now."

"What's the Trinity Protocol?" Yui asked. Gendo simply frowned. Maya didn't answer. "Does it involved fire?" Yui asked. "If it does, then I'm all for it-"

The main holo-tank changed to show all three REIGI installation and their interconnections.

"Oh no," Maya breathed. "The Code-666 firewall isn't there any more!" Indeed, on the viewer, only the Matsushiro site was still protected by the intricate rings of red barriers that indicated the advanced firewall was still in place.

The blinking red indicator that was MAGI-04, the Massachusetts branch, shifted its attack from Matsushiro to Tokyo.

"Trinity Protocol going active... now." Rei 2.0's eyes burned red. The lines of attack reversed, and the MAGI-04 icon disappeared.

"They're completely off-line!" Maya breathed in awe.

"The Massachusetts branch was already damaged anyway," Rei 2.0 sniffed in derision. "They don't count. Shifting attack to MAGI-06 in China." Blue lines stretched out. Green lines of resistance shielded the blue attack. The green lines faded into yellow, then red. The MAGI-06 icon itself wavered between blue and red, then disappeared abruptly. "MAGI-06 destroyed." Rei 2.0 frowned. "Correction, forcible self-shutdown. They will be unable to come back online for the near future, though." Rei 2.0 smiled. The two remaining MAGI sites in Germany wavered out of existence. "The screen is clear, all foreign MAGI have withdrawn," Rei 2.0 reported. "LCL-forms have regained control of Tokyo-3. All Iruelites have either fled, or been purged."

"-with fire?" Yui asked, raising a finger.

Maya leaned closer to Gendo. "I didn't know Yui was such a pyro," she whispered.

"Neither did I, before I married her," Gendo replied in an undertone.

"What's that, dear?" Yui asked, slipping her arm through his and giving him a piercing gaze.

"-um, I was telling Maya how much I love your warm personality," he said quickly.

* * *

Hikari and Kaworu hiked through the deserted streets of Tokyo-3. Unit-01's ejected entry plug sat in a smoking crater in the distance. Hikari was stomping along angrily, and Kaworu was walking along behind her, holding a map, looking very confused.

Hikari glanced sidelong at her ash-haired companion. "Why do guys never stop and ask for directions?" she sniped.

"I thought I knew where I was going," Kaworu argued. "The map said the next power cable substation was supposed to be at those coordinates."

Hikari fell back and looked at the map. Her eyes glittered. "You're holding it upside down, you nitwit!" she yanked it out of his hands and turned it right side up. "I _told_ you we only had thirty seconds of activation time left. I _told_ you we'd have to eject."

Kaworu furrowed his eyebrows. He looked closer at the map. He turned it over, and looked at it. He turned it back right side up. He glanced sheepishly at Hikari, who glared back. Kaworu seemed to visibly deflate. "I'm going to get spanked again, aren't I?" he asked in a small voice.

"You should be-" Hikari cut off. Her tired eyes suddenly widened. Up ahead were the hesitant forms of Touji and Kensuke. The boy's camera was glued to the carnage in the distance. "What're you guys doing?" she yelled, waving her arms as she ran towards them.

"Filming the end of the world, what do you think?" Kensuke retorted.

"Never mind that," Hikari said, "Now that we have four people, we have to go have a séance!" She dragged the two boys into the nearest building.

"A what?" Touji scratched his head. "Class rep, are you back on that witchcraft bent again?"

"I don't like seances," Kaworu said mournfully. "They're scary..."

"Well too bad," Hikari snapped, grabbing his arm. "We need four people! You're coming with me!"

"-err, yes ma'am," he said meekly.

"Pussy-whipped," Touji whispered to Kensuke.

"What was that, mister?" Hikari shrieked.

"Nothing!" Touji yelled back in a terrified tone of voice.

Unbeknownst to any of them, they had two ghostly stalkers. Shinji turned to Rei. "How did you come up with something like this?"

"When we saw Fuyutski at Matsushiro, I understood," Rei answered. "He carries Adam. If we unite him with Lilith, I might gain the power to free us."

"Oh." Shinji thought for a minute. "But how are we going to tell Fuyutski? No one can hear us..."

"We cannot interact normally with anyone," Rei explained. "Therefore we should be able to interact paranormally."

"No no no, that makes no sense..." Shinji stopped and held his head. "No, wait, it does, and that scares me."

The four children ran into the dark building. It was a library, so Hikari was quickly able to find a round table and four chairs to go around it. "Everybody sit!" she ordered. They all sat, each of them barely visible to the other in the gloom. Enough light got in through the distant windows that only human outlines were visible at first. Slowly their eyes adjusted.

Kaworu was shivering. Kensuke was turning his camera this way and that. Whatever film he was getting would undoubtedly look like one of those fake amateur horror movies filmed from the perspective of one of the victims.

Touji suddenly looked behind him at a small noise that turned out to be the air-conditioning kicking in. "Class Rep, this is really freaking me out." He glanced back to Kaworu's pale face drawn in fear.

"Quiet," Hikari hissed. "You're only afraid because Kaworu's afraid." She turned to face the pseudo-Angel. "Kaworu, stop being afraid!"

The boy hesitantly nodded, and an instant change came over him. Suddenly he was no longer shaking, his face had become serene, and his eyes glazed over. Kensuke's camera was glued to the boy.

Touji looked at Kaworu uneasily. "Actually, that right there is creepy all by itself," he murmured.

"Would all of you just settle down?" Hikari whispered loudly. "Now, what we're all going to do is hold hands-"

Kaworu raised a hand. "Is it okay if I go back to being scared now?" he asked plaintively.

Hikari gave a resigned sigh. "Yes, Kaworu, you can go back to being scared."

The boy began shivering again, and his eyes widened.

Hikari ran a hand down her face. "Can we focus, please?" She looked around. "Everybody hold hands!" Everybody obediently held hands. Hikari closed her eyes. "We call on the spirits to come to us now," she intoned. "Make your presence felt to us."

Rei glanced sidelong at Shinji. "Get under the table," she ordered.

"What? But..."

"Don't argue."

With a sigh, Shinji crouched down and got under the table. "Okay," he said, his voice muffled, "Now what? It's hard to see under here, and-" There was a solid thump. "Ouch!" Shinji cursed. "Sorry, I hit my head."

The four children sitting around the table were suddenly a bit more scared.

"Wh-What was that?" Touji said. "You guys heard that thump, right?"

"Yeah," Kensuke said, "I got it on film! Here, I'll replay it-"

"Don't!" Kaworu begged. He looked genuinely terrified.

"Oh spirit," Hikari called, in a more hesitant voice, "are you someone we know? U-Umm, tap once for no and twice for yes." Touji looked at her dubiously. She glared back.

Shinji's muffled voice came from under the table. "Rei, what do I do?"

"Hit the table again," she replied.

"With my head?" he asked disbelievingly.

"Only if you lack common sense," Rei retorted.

Shinji lifted his hand and rapped on the table twice. Kaworu began to moan quietly.

"Shut him up," Touji said quietly, "He's really creeping me out!"

"-sh-shhh, it's okay," Hikari tried to soothe Kaworu. "Th-the spirit is someone we know, so it's okay."

Kaworu nodded and bit his lip, falling silent.

Kensuke spoke up. "Are you someone from our class?" Shinji rapped the table twice. "...are-are you Shinji?" he continued. Shinji rapped twice quickly, then crawled out from under the table.

"What do I do now?" he asked Rei. "He guessed who I was... By the way, why could he hear me knocking? That makes no sense."

Kensuke opened his mouth. "-uh-umm, oh spirit, what do you want from us?" he asked.

"Dude, that's not a yes or no question," Touji chided.

"Get back under the table, Shinji," Rei ordered, pushing on his shoulder.

While Shinji kept the four children busy, Rei went and gathered a bunch of library books, setting them down next to the table with a crash. Everyone seated jumped. Shinji crawled out from under the table and watched as Rei proceeded to tear up the books. She ripped up pages, carefully tearing out individual words. To Shinji this was confusing. To the four children sitting around the table, it was utterly frightening, since from their perspective, books had dragged themselves over and were tearing themselves apart.

Finally a message appeared on the table, formed by the torn-out words. Hikari leaned forward to read it.

* * *

Shigeru and Aoba walked down a hallway of the Geofront. In the distance, Yui's voice could be heard. She was giggling madly, and yelling "Fire! Fire!" There was also a fwhooshing sound. Gendo's voice could be heard, saying "dammit, stay away from me with that thing, woman!"

"So," Shigeru said, "how's Fuyutski doing?"

"Oh, he's recovering nicely," Maya answered. "I was just going to check on him now, actually."

"Nice flowers," Shigeru noted.

Maya blushed and looked uneasy for a moment. "Ah, yeah," she mumbled, "s-someone told me to give them to him, that's all," she said quickly. She desperately hoped Shigeru wouldn't ask any more questions. No one had ever risked their life to save her like Fuyutski had. She still didn't remember much of the journey out of Matsushiro, but she did remember the feel of his arms around her as he carried her out, and that was something she hadn't felt in a long time either.

Fuyutski's room was just ahead. She palmed the door open, her heart went into her throat. Then the bottom fell out of her world when she realized he was gone.

He could have just gone to the bathroom, but something told Maya it was far more serious than that. It took her all of ten minutes to get down to Terminal Dogma, the forgotten flowers still in her hand.

She jogged through the door when it slid aside, and came to a stop. She lifted her eyes up to the catwalk that led along the wall to where Lilith was pinned to her cross. There was Fuyutski, making his way tortuously across towards Lilith.

"Hey!" she called. He apparently didn't hear. "Kozou!" she called, cupping her hands to her mouth.

At that, he turned, looking around, then he looked down and saw her. He stumbled to the edge of the catwalk, leaning against it heavily. "I'm sorry," he called down, his voice almost lost with the distance. "Don't try to stop me!" He looked back towards Lilith, then back down to Maya. He hung his head, as if bearing a great weight. "I'm sorry!" he called again.

"What the hell!" Maya yelled. "You crazy old man...!" She ran over to the ladder leading up to the catwalk and began climbing. The flowers were coming apart, petals drifting lazily to the grating below. Finally, in her haste, they slipped from her hands entire. She paused a moment to watch with sorrow as they slowly spun through the air towards the floor.

She pushed onwards. The top of the catwalk got closer, and finally she pulled herself up onto it, gasping for breath. "Stop!" she called, jogging along the catwalk, one hand on the railing, the other over the horrendous stitch in her side from the sudden activity.

He had almost reached Lilith. He reached out his hand, the hand that contained Adam. Suddenly she knew what he was doing. "Hey!" she called. He glanced back at her sorrowfully. Two small wavering outlines appeared beside him, two children, one on either side. It was Shinji and Rei, she realized. "Wait...!"

She stumbled the last few steps, her arms closing around what should have been his neck. He was fading from sight, her hands were beginning to pass through him. Then he reached back and put an arm around her. She passed the edge of the catwalk and into empty air. Closing her eyes, she felt wetness drip down her face as she fell. Then there was a flash of light that penetrated even her closed eyelids.

* * *

A sea of stars shone over the lip of a precipice of a certain high mountain. Far below, a dim blue jewel twinkled amidst towering peaks on all sides. It was full of life, that jewel, though not as full as it once had been.

Up on the precipice, a girl paced back and forth, her arms crossed over her chest. A frown marred her pale features as she looked back to the small blue sphere of life. "He should have been here by now," she said, to herself since there was obviously no one else nearby. "He's undoubtedly lost. Perhaps even reborn into another body by now."

She turned and resumed her pacing, arms held tightly over her chest, her eyes desolate. She did not know that she had picked up an onlooker. A boy had stepped out of the treeline and was observing her steadily. A smile crossed his weary features, and he stepped closer. She didn't notice, such was her internal turbitude.

He fell into step behind her, matching her steps and her posture, his arms crossed over his chest. She continued her march, unaware of her shadow. Then she stopped. She took a step, and he took a step. She spun, came face to face with him. He mimicked her sudden surprise, and the furrowing of her brow.

She slapped him, then turned away, crossing her arms again. "Don't make fun of me," she said sullenly. I was scared." She said nothing for a while, and neither did he. "You were supposed to be here sooner."

"I know," was all he said. He did not immediately apologize, as he might have in a previous time.

"I want to introduce you to my family," she said plaintively.

"We'll have time for that," he said soothingly. "You're shivering." He walked up to her, putting his hands on her arms.

"I'm cold," she said.

"It's a good thing I'm here, then." He held her close to him. After a few minutes she stopped shivering. "Let's just rest here a while."

"I don't want to," she retorted softly, but she allowed him to guide her to a sitting position. She made a small sound of discomfort, for her belly had grown large due to the two presences growing inside her.

He built a fire, and then sat down beside her.

She looked at him. "We should leave soon."

"I know," he replied. He reached into his pocket and brought out a small black device with earphones attacked to it.

"How did you bring that here?" she asked, her eyes narrowing. She did not, however, refuse an earpiece when he offered it. "Only for a few minutes," she warned.

"Yeah," he agreed. "Just a few minutes."

Her eyes slowly closed. Soon she was asleep, her head on his shoulder. The fire burned brighter, its fringes red against the cold night.

* * *

Back on earth, a new star joined the constellation of the Virgo, just to the galactic south of the alpha star of Coma Berenices. It burned a hot yellow, but it was red at its fringes, and its sudden appearance threw quite a few scientists into a quandary.


End file.
